Idol Hunting
by HappyTreeFanatic
Summary: Sick of the crazy and repetitive deaths of the Happy Tree Town, Sniffles rallies the other HTFs on a quest to destroy the Cursed Idols and end the Happy Tree Curse once and for all. Will probably contain Flippy x Flaky. Rated T because... it's Happy Tree Friends. Anyways, first story here, please read and review! On hold because I'm not feeling well again.
1. A Game for Fools

It all started as an average day in Happy Tree Town. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Lumpy was causing chaos in his latest job.

Nutty was screaming as he bounced around in the back of Lumpy's taxi. "Could you, heeheehee, slow down, hahah, just a little, heehee, PLEASE!?" His panicked cries were mixed with involuntary giggles as the taxi ran down a generic tree friend and someone's mailbox, causing letters to fly all over the place and obscure the windshield. The jittery green squirrel clung onto his seat for dear life and closed his eyes, wondering if he would ever make it back home.

The blue moose in front turned around, revealing his crossed eyes. "Don't worry little fella, we'll get you to the docks in no time!" he said cheerfully.

"I WANTED TO GO THE CANDY STORE!" the squirrel screamed back. Opening his eyes, he saw that Lumpy had driven onto the sidewalk and was now plowing through a generic tree friend's backyard, with blood now added to the mix of letters covering the windshield. In the near distance, he could just make out a bunch of propane tanks. "KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD! WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

Quick as flash, Lumpy flung the steering wheel to the left, knocking over the tanks and causing the car to veer sharply through the bushes. "Aw, you worry too much!" he said as they drove through the foliage. The sound of a sudden explosion rang in the distance, as well as someone wailing. "NOOO! CUB!" At this point, Nutty had pulled the candy cane off of his chest and was biting it hard to keep from screaming, seriously reconsidering choosing Lumpy's Taxi Service.

Unfortunately, the taxi came out right in the middle of a playground where a yellow bunny in pink slippers, a buck-toothed purple beaver, and a pink chipmunk with a bow were playing tag. Unaware of anything wrong, assuming that Nutty was screaming about some little thing as usual, the three happily laughed and ran around.

"Tag, you're it Toothy!" the little chipmunk giggled cutely as she tapped the purple beaver on the tail.

The beaver tripped on a pinecone, but he got back up laughing and brushed himself off. The laughter soon turned into a gasp of horror though as finally noticed the blood-spattered taxi flying straight for his friend Cuddles. "Cuddles! Behind you!" he shouted and gestured frantically.

"I'm not falling for it this time, Toothy!" the yellow rabbit replied with a laugh. "That's the oldest trick in the bo-" He was cut off as the taxi collided with him, the sheer speed pinning him to the windshield and sending his pink slippers flying.

"LUMPY!" the squirrel cried.

"Oh darn, the weather's getting bad." He quickly turned on the window wipers which began slicing off small bits of Cuddles and smearing blood on the windshield. He also turned on the radio to drown out the sound of Cuddles' screams. "Darn wind," he muttered before singing along to his favorite song.

Giggles, meanwhile, was screaming her head off and chasing after the taxi, trying to get the driver's attention. "Lumpy! LUMPY!" she screamed at the oblivious moose. Unfortunately for her, the taxi somehow ended up getting one side caught on the carousel, and as she came closer, the carousel began spinning at a rapid speed and the taxi ran her over. The carousel kept spinning and the taxi kept running her over and over again until her screams finally quieted down and the pink chipmunk was reduced to a bloody mush on the green grass. The taxi finally got free and went flying.

Toothy, meanwhile, was running away sobbing at the death of his friends, tears blinding his eyes. Not being able to see anything, he tripped on another pinecone and went flying into the monkey bars. "Ohhh," he groaned clutching his head and attempting to stand up. At that moment, the taxi flew by and forced the beaver through the monkey bars, slicing him to pieces.

"Alright, here we are!" the dim-witted moose said cheerfully, pulling a shaking Nutty out of the backseat and ignoring the mutilated body of Cuddles that slid off of the windshield. The monkey bars, now damaged from the collision, then promptly collapsed, causing a piece to impale the back of his head, killing him instantly. Nutty, whose candy had been shaken off in the crash, giggled as he desperately searched for something sugary. After frantically scanning the bloody and torn up landscape, he spotted a shiny round object on the grass and picked it up, only to see that it was a weird idol thingy.

"Huh?" he said shortly before a frozen turkey fell out of the sky and smashed his head into the ground, killing him instantly.

* * *

Sniffles was busy walking home from a tiring day at the hospital, pondering the origins of the curse on Happy Tree Town, when he heard the turkey splatter Nutty's head like a ripe melon. He climbed over the chain-link fence and gasped upon seeing all of the carnage. He realized how much work he would have to do tomorrow and groaned in frustration. The sun then glinted off of something near Nutty's corpse. Carefully avoiding the bloody slices of Toothy and the frozen turkey, the blue anteater made his way over and saw the idol. He gasped again, recognizing it from various places around and near the town. The gears in his brain quickly spun as he realized it was almost always somewhere nearby whenever there was some kind of massacre. Two and two came together, and he realized that it could possibly be the source of the Happy Tree Curse.

Gingerly, he reached over and picked up the idol. He then ran as fast and in as direct of a path as possible to get back to his house, screaming all the way. On the way, he barely avoided a swerving truck driven by the Mole that caused a huge pile-up, dodged a laser from Splendid that sliced Lifty and Shifty in half, and just escaped an insane Flippy who was busy skinning Petunia. After carving a path of destruction in his wake, he finally made it back to the safety of his home. Panting and exhausted, he tossed the idol onto a work table and slumped over in a chair to rest. The folding chair then slammed shut on Sniffles, crushing his body. His blood slowly pooled on the floor beneath him. As if that wasn't enough, a bird came in through the open door and landed on his new laser, causing the laser to emit a beam that disintegrated his body along with half his house.

**Author's Note: So yeah, here's my first story! Read and review if you'd like, and let me know how to write better.**


	2. Test Run

**Author's Note: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I do not in any way own Happy Tree Friends. That belongs to Mondo Media. Anyways, onto the story!**

_The next day…_

The green army bear entered the hospital feeling downcast and mostly looking at his feet. His dog tags clinked as he adjusted his camouflaged beret and walked up to the desk where the Mole, who had miraculously survived the crash, was holding a brochure upside down. Without a word, the Mole simply pointed his cane down one of the halls.

Flippy saluted before remembering that the Mole was blind. "Oh, uh, thanks Mole." He trudged over to the room that the Mole had pointed to and felt a surge of shame as he looked at the four patients in bed.

There was another bear wearing a dark red bathrobe and cap who was currently sleeping while a small bear cub in a beanie and diaper played with a ball by his bedside. Next to him was an orange beaver wearing a construction cap who was missing his arms and giving an irritated glare to the visiting veteran. In the next bed was a blue skunk with a flower in her hair, looking more bored than anything, and finally, a red porcupine who was also curled up resting. Upon seeing her, the bear blushed slightly and felt another stab of shame.

"Hey Petunia," he said addressing the blue skunk, "I'm really sorry about, uh, y'know… killing you all yesterday."

Petunia sighed. "It's okay, Flippy. We know that you tried your hardest. No one could have predicted an exploding propane tank to take out Cub and cause you to flip out. We all forgive you."

The orange beaver harrumphed and turned away.

"Well, most of us forgive you. Handy's still upset that you cut off his legs before killing him."

Flippy glumly sat down by the porcupine's bed and started gently stroking her quills.

"If it makes you feel any better, you didn't kill Flaky," the blue skunk added, trying to cheer up her friend.

His head snapped up. "What? How?"

"Yeah, she didn't die from that stab and apparently ran away while you were… erm…"

"Skinning you," the bear finished flatly.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Flaky began to stir. "Flippy?" she muttered drowsily, starting to sit up.

"Oh, Flaky, you should rest! You're still recovering from yesterday." He felt a pang in his chest as he watched his closest friend settle back down into bed. He cared about her a lot and hated whenever she got hurt during one of his flip-outs. Despite what she thought about looking too plain or acting like too much of a tomboy to be attractive, Flippy thought that she was stunning the way she was. He found her little laugh adorable and loved how she was always kind to everyone. For a moment, he allowed himself to imagine what it would be like to tell her how he felt and how happy they could be together. Then he sighed and shook the fantasy from his mind. Sure she was nice to him, but considering her many fears, could she really love someone as crazy as him? _It would never work out,_ he thought sadly thinking back to the time when she stabbed him in the eye in a moment of paranoia. They laughed about it later, but it just reinforced the fact that she was too terrified of him to be anything more than a friend.

Unbeknownst to him, Flaky was having similar thoughts. She really liked him too, and thought that he was the most caring and generous Tree Friend… as long as nothing reminded him of war. She saw the sad look in his eyes whenever he came to the hospital and always wanted to say something comforting to him, but she always got tongue-tied and felt like she would just make a fool of herself. After all, how could a brave soldier like him ever love a coward like her? She shuddered slightly at the thought of him marrying some faceless stranger in the future, while she looked on from the crowd, and she felt him stop stroking her quills. _Great, now he probably thinks I'm terrified of him touching me._ The two of them just sighed and thought in somber silence.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another room nearby, Sniffles was getting out of bed, feeling sore but recovered enough to get home. He walked out to the front desk, looking into one of the rooms where the Tree Friends from the playground incident were recovering, and signed out while the Mole was trying to use the computer.

An hour later, Sniffles was resting comfortably inside his recently repaired home while the idol sat outside on a table catching the sunlight. The sun made the idol shine like gold, and it wasn't long before a van with two green raccoons, one wearing a fedora, pulled up in front of the yard.

"Ehehehehehehehehe!" they laughed as they spotted the unsecured idol. The duo cautiously looked around for a trap, but, seeing none, they quickly rushed over and examined the idol.

"What is it, Shifty?" the one without the fedora asked.

"I dunno, but it sure looks shiny, Lifty!" Shifty replied with a laugh.

The duo looked around once more and, seeing that Sniffles was busy inside with some machine, quickly snatched the idol and dashed back to their van. As they drove away while chuckling at their good fortune, the van drove over a stray nail that punctured one of the tires.

"Uh oh," they said. Quickly, Lifty used a jack to lift the rear of the car and changed the tire. Spotting an oil leak, he began to fix that too, while Shifty impatiently shouted for him to hurry up.. There was suddenly an ominous creaking sound, followed by a loud snap as the jack broke, causing the car to fall and the tire to crush Lifty's middle.

Shifty began to panic as he heard his brother's screaming and saw blood start pooling by the door. To make matters worse, Lumpy, who was a butcher again today, began speeding towards them on a motorcycle, waving a cleaver and demanding back all the meat they had stolen. The fedora wearing raccoon took one glance at his writhing brother, then at the angry moose, and then stomped on the gas pedal.

Lifty screamed even louder as the tire ground him further before the van sped off. He moaned, several of his organs now splattered on the van and the road, and tried to crawl away for help, only to have Lumpy run him over again on the motorcycle. He twitched once more and then stopped moving.

This whole time, Sniffles had been observing the scene through a set of hidden cameras. He knew that Lifty and Shifty couldn't resist the lure of a shiny object, so he made them his unwilling test subjects as he tried to figure out just how the idol and the curse worked. As the van crushed Lifty, the anteater stroked his snout and squinted at various charts, noticing a spike in a line labeled "entropy". "Hmm," he muttered while recording the results. He glanced up as another entropy spike appeared just as Lumpy's motorcycle hit a pothole and sent him flying.

As Lumpy smashed his face on the pavement, the line graphs started to zigzag. Shifty laughed, thinking that he had outrun karma this time, and admired the idol in his hands. His good fortune didn't last long though, since Lumpy's motorcycle slammed the back of the van and caused it to crash into a tree. He groaned and sat up, miraculously surviving an accident that would kill most Tree Friends. He laughed weakly at his lucky break.

Lumpy's cleaver hit the ground and shot off sparks, igniting the oil. The flame followed the trail all the way back to the van where it set off an explosion, scorching Shifty and sending charred meat into the air. Looks like his luck had finally run out.

Back in his tree, Sniffles was busy analyzing the data from the accident and trying to figure out how to safely handle the idol. He smelled the burned meat and looked outside just as Shifty's burning fedora floated by. It left him wondering how he was going to make it down to the end of the road and bring the idol back to his lab without dying gruesomely. "Ughh," he moaned as he face palmed.

**Author's Note: ****I know nothing about relationships, so the first half of this was kind of guess work, but I think I did okay. T****he next chapter will alternate between focusing on Flippy and Flaky and focusing on Sniffle's attempts to dispose of the idol. Read and review and let me know what I can do better!**


	3. First Try

_A few days later…_

Today was a special day for the Happy Tree Friends. To everyone's surprise, Lumpy had died early in the morning. Even more surprising, he had died _without_ killing anybody else. Now, with their chance of death greatly reduced, many Tree Friends were out either celebrating and enjoying a day where they wouldn't get killed by a lethally dumb moose or preparing to engage in risky behaviors, feeling somewhat more invincible than usual.

Flippy stood nervously in front of the door to Flaky's tree, trying to build up the courage to ask her to go on a walk. By now, he'd probably memorized every whorl and mark on the door. He fiddled with his dog tags and repeatedly adjusted his beret until there was no way he could put it off any longer. Still, he stood standing there, though.

_C'mon Flippy, you can do this! You've survived knives, gunfire, bombs, and war. Heck, you've even managed to fight off _yourself_! Asking Flaky if she wants to go for a walk in the park should be… well, a walk in the park!_

A snort came from somewhere in the back of his mind. _Is the big, strong teddy bear afraid?_ a deep voice mocked. _I'll never see why you're friends with these people. They're all so weak and fragile, especially the spiky red one. She's the biggest coward of 'em all!_

_Her name is Flaky! And don't call her a coward! She has every right to be frightened!_ Fed up with arguing with himself, and proving that he wasn't scared, Flippy knocked several times on the door.

There were several long moments of silence that felt agonizingly stretched out to the nervous bear. Worried thoughts began to cross his mind. _What if she's not home? What if she's sick? What if she's being robbed? What if she's dead?_ Then the worst possible thought crossed his mind. _What if she's too afraid of me to come out?_

Luckily Flippy didn't have to suffer or listen to his evil side's mocking laughter for very long, for there was soon the sound of several locks being undone on the other side.

The door opened just a smidge to allow a single red eye to look out. "H-hello?" a small voice asked hesitantly.

"Hey Flaky! It's me, Flippy! I was wondering if you, uh, would like to, maybe…"

_Get on with it already! Better yet, go home!_ the dark voice snarled.

"…go to the park with me?"

"O-oh, Flippy! Of c-course! I'd l-love to go to the p-park with you." Flaky quickly closed the door and the sound of several more locks being undone could be heard.

_Well, you've got to admire the security she's got on this place,_ Evil Flippy said grudgingly.

_Get lost, will you?_ Flippy snapped. The dark presence in his mind faded as Flaky opened the door.

"You look nice today Flaky," Flippy said kindly as they began walking over to the park.

"Y-you really think so?" Flaky asked. She patted her spikes, wincing at the dandruff that fell out like a miniature flurry. _He's probably just saying that to be nice._ She noticed Flippy had stopped and looking at her glum face with concern so she quickly put on a bright smile. "C-c'mon, let's go t-to the park."

* * *

Sniffles carefully examined the idol sitting on a stool in the center of his lab. It looked so inconspicuous and harmless, yet Sniffles knew better. He'd already been killed twice more by it in the past few days and had his home destroyed again. The blue anteater had made sure to clear away any unnecessary equipment, leaving the room empty except for him, the idol, and a high-powered laser.

There was also a computer to one side that seemed to be keeping track of something. Glancing at it, he turned back to the idol with a satisfied look. "Prepare to meet your doom, idol of destruction," he muttered to himself dramatically as he switched the laser on.

A beam of red light shot out of the device, missing the idol slightly. Sniffles frowned and used a joystick to adjust the direction of the laser. That's when things started to go wrong.

The computer began to beep frantically, erratic lines shooting across the screen. The idol's shiny surface deflected the laser, proving it to be ineffective. It didn't seem to want to settle for just avoiding destruction though. It wanted to make the anteater _pay_.

The red beam began to bounce around off of the metal walls of the lab, creating a lethal net of light. Sniffles began trying to shut off the beam, but the beam passed right in front of him, blocking his path and nearly slicing off his snout. It continued to bounce around and shot his hands, causing him to drop the joystick with a screech. Sniffles was forced to ridiculously contort himself into increasingly uncomfortable poses to avoid being carved as the deadly web continued to weave itself.

During one movement of his head, his glasses began to slide down his snout. He panicked, sweating anxiously and watching as they slipped lower… and lower…. Fortunately, he was able to just barely curl the end of his snout to catch them before they hit the ground or came in contact with the lasers. He sighed with relief, then, to his horror, he sneezed.

The glasses missed all of the lasers but fell onto the joystick, pushing it slightly. The laser began to move and the net constricted around Sniffles. He hissed in pain as the beams began to burn his fur, then his skin. He glared furiously at the idol that seemed to be watching him smugly and the screamed in sheer agony as he was slowly sliced apart. The laser cauterized the wounds, preventing blood from spilling, and continued to move even after the anteater was dead. For a few seconds, the beam went out the window, before it reflected back against the wall into the device, causing it to explode. Debris rained down around Sniffles' remains as the idol sat silently watching.

* * *

Flippy smiled happily, sitting on the bench next to Flaky and watching her laugh. The red porcupine often chuckled nervously, but a true, full laugh was a rare treasure that he loved to even just catch a glimpse of. The two of them had had a great time. They'd borrowed a two-seater bicycle from Toothy and strolled around the park for a while, stopping to say hi to their friends. Along the way, they'd had a tea party with Petunia and Giggles and were joined by Lammy, played catch with Pop and Cub, and even fed the ducks. Flaky was scared at first, having seen Lumpy's circus ducks, but she was soon at ease around the waterfowl and even touched one. Now they were just sitting down, enjoying the rays of the setting sun and watching Russell fly a kite while Toothy cleaned the bike nearby.

Flaky's ears perked up as she heard the familiar tune of Cro-Marmot's ice-cream truck on the other side of the small hill that they were seated by. "H-hey Flippy, w-would you like s-some ice-cream?"

"Sure!" he replied cheerfully and began to rise.

Flaky pulled him back down into his seat though and rose herself. "N-no, you stay here F-Flippy. You've already d-done so much for me today b-by bringing m-me out here and h-helping me with the d-ducks. It'll be my t-treat." She was thankful that her red fur hid her blush while she was insisting.

"Oh! Okay!" The green bear sat back with a contented smile, happy that he could make his friend happy, and watched her walk off before turning around and admiring the sunset.

_Y'know, it almost looks like the sky is on… fire…._ Sounds of war began to play through Flippy's head and he could feel himself losing control. _No! Not now! Remember those calming exercises._ Flippy took slow, deep breaths and counted, the war sounds fading away. he smiled and kept focusing on his breathing, unaware of the laser that passed through the sky and struck Russell's kite.

"Yar!" The turquoise sea otter pirate panicked upon seeing his kite aflame and began to try to control it as it burned and was tossed around in a strange gust of wind.

Flippy smelled the smoke and coughed _What? How?_ He opened his eyes in time to see Russell's flaming kite crash into the ground in front of him. Images of downed planes flashed though his mind, and he closed his eyes tightly, whimpering as the world faded away. _No…._

"Yar!" Russell quickly approached the green army bear to see if he was alright. "Yar?" he asked in concern, seeing the bear simply quiver in place. His one eye not covered by an eye-patch widened in horror though, and he began to back away as the bear opened his eyes and laughed, revealing bright yellow eyes and dangerously sharp teeth. He backed away even faster when Evil Flippy drew out his trademark bowie knife. The sea otter tripped over a rock and his hat fell over his face. When he pushed it up, he saw the bear standing over him, knife raised. "Heheh," the pirate chuckled nervously. He was so doomed. "HehehehHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Evil Flippy frowned upon seeing the fear in Russell's eye replaced with manic glee as his iris turned gray. He brought his knife down, planning to disembowel the sea otter, when a sharp hook caught his knife.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The sea otter parried the soldier's knife with his hook hand and quickly leapt to his peg legs. He then began a rapid salvo of slashes, forcing the bear onto the defensive while he advanced, laughing maniacally the whole time.

What was supposed to have been an easy kill was turning into a fight for his life for Evil Flippy. He grunted and glared angrily at the crazy otter whose crooked-toothed grin never wavered as he pushed Evil Flippy back with slash after slash. He felt a sharp pain on his arm and was shocked to see that he was bleeding. _This loony actually managed to HIT me!_ With an angry roar, Evil Flippy lunged forward, ignoring the cuts to his torso and slamming the knife into Russell's abdomen.

Evil Flippy backed away with a satisfied smirk, expecting to see the sea otter double over in pain. To his dismay and surprise however, the pirate ignored the knife in his belly and continued laughing and slashing. Now without a weapon, Evil Flippy was the one on a run while being chased by a psycho.

The two of them ran around the same general area while Toothy watched in stunned fascination. Evil Flippy eventually managed to climb up a tree, suffering several deep lacerations to his back and legs. He glared down to see Russell now slashing at the trunk of the tree. Since the mad pirate was now distracted, the malevolent ursine chose to jump down and slam Russell into the ground.

Russell managed to slash Evil Flippy's face a few times, but as the green bear pinned down his hook, it was clear who would win. Evil Flippy pulled the knife out of Russell's stomach, basking in the coppery scent for a moment before plunging it into Russell's chest. He pulled it out and brought it down again and again, rewarded with a spray of crimson blood each time, but the otter's laughter did not abate. Despite how many times he had been stabbed, the otter _would not stop laughing_, and it was beginning to disturb Evil Flippy. Again and again he stabbed until the pirate's mad laughter had become a weak gurgle that eventually died away. Just for good measure, Evil Flippy stabbed him a few more times before turning his attention to the purple beaver who was now staring in horror.

The evil bear grinned as he saw Toothy try to run and he quickly tossed the bicycle, knocking the purple beaver to the ground. He relished the fear that was in the poor beaver's eyes and heard soft sobs coming from his buck-toothed mouth.

Flaky was finally returning over the hill carrying two scoops of strawberry ice cream on a single cone. She was slightly annoyed to find that Nutty had made it to the truck before her, but not very surprised. The green squirrel had spent quite a while buying several scoops of ice cream, devouring them, and then ordering more before she built up the courage to ask Nutty to let her buy a cone quickly. She heard that Flippy liked pink, so she hoped he liked her choice.

As she climbed over the top of the hill, she could immediately sense that something was wrong. The bench where Flippy had been seated was now empty and the smoldering remains of something lay at the feet of it. Her gaze frantically swept across the landscape and she felt her heart stop upon seeing Russell's corpse, the ghost of his last laugh still upon it. The world faded slightly as she felt faint. Then she did the most reasonable thing she could think of. She threw the ice cream into the air and began to scream at the top of her lungs. She was a very good screamer.

Evil Flippy heard Flaky's screams and was suddenly thrust back into the dark recesses of the bear's mind. Flippy shook his head and opened his eyes, revealing emerald irises that looked around in confusion. He glanced down to see Toothy sobbing at his feet and he quickly tossed his knife away in horror. He backed away while Toothy ran off, tears streaming in his wake. The screaming continued and Flippy looked back to see that Flaky had returned.

Ashamed, Flippy hurried over and tried to calm her down.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm back now Flaky," he said, trying to hide the sadness in his voice.

Eventually, Flaky's screams subsided and she looked at Flippy with wide eyes. His sorrowful expression tugged at her heartstrings.

"Flaky… I'm so sorry about what happened today…. I messed everything up…." The bear could hardly keep the anguish out of his voice. _Today was supposed to be perfect. What must she think of me now?_

"I-it's okay Flippy, I know th-that it was just your evil s-sides fault," she said trying to comfort him. He looked away and covered his face though as though he were tired of always hearing those words and doubting their sincerity. _I wonder how much he hurts himself inside seeing how much he's hurt everyone outside._ She gently took one of his paws and held it in hers. "I m-mean it Flippy. In f-fact, I had a r-really great time with you."

Flippy looked up at her astonished. He thought that his latest flip-out had just ruined any chance he might have had with her, but it looked like she was willing to overlook the negatives and focus on the positives of today. _If she can do it, so can I._

Flaky felt a smile cross her face as Flippy smiled and put both paws around hers. She turned away slightly, once again thankful for her red fur. She chuckled nervously. "Y'know Flippy, there's something I've kinda wanted to tell you," she began. Seeing the curiosity in his eyes, she focused her courage and continued. "I really l-." Unfortunately for her, the ice cream chose that moment to come back to Earth and splatter on their heads. Flaky squealed in surprise as the cold treat landed in her quills. The other scoop landed on top of Flippy's beret and Flaky, seeing it and Flippy's bemused expression, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Flippy grinned at seeing her laugh again and laughed with her as two of them cleaned up. "So Flaky," he said a while later as they were heading home. "What did you want to tell me?"

Flaky averted her gaze. _The moment's already passed._ "Oh, it was just nothing," she said dismissively, approaching her house. She stepped through the doorway and gave Flippy a surprise hug goodbye, waving at him as he walked away and sighing with regret once he was out of sight.

**Author's Note: The chapter I had originally planned was getting kind of long, so I've broken it up into three parts. Thank you for the reviews that I have so far though!**

**XFantasy-chanX: Thanks for the encouragement! What sort of details did you notice?**

**JaMaL HaDeS: I'm glad that you really like the story so far! I hope that the rest will be just as awesome.**

**Flaky2.0: Thank you? I can't really understand you're review, but I think it's positive, so I'll take it as a compliment!**

**On a side note, I do apologize for the lack of plot movement. My brain enjoys jumping around from idea to idea, but rest assured, I will do my best to see this fanfic finished! As always, read and review!**


	4. Second Wind

_A week later…_

Flaky's usually tidy house looked like a disaster zone. Smoke was coming from the kitchen, furniture was lying overturned in the living room, and random accessories were tossed haphazardly around her empty jewelry box on her bedroom floor. Flaky herself was running about in a state of panic. Had Cuddles hosted a surprise party gone wrong? No. Did Lifty and Shifty finally decide to ransack her house in their unending search for valuables? No. The cause of all the chaos and Flaky's distress was a simple phone call. Flippy had asked her out to dinner.

_One hour ago…_

Flaky smiled nervously as she added the final ingredient for her cake into a large white bowl and proceeded to mix the batter. Humming softly to herself, she cautiously poured the mixture into a small round tin and carefully put it in the oven, various warnings about burns and the dangers of ovens crossing her mind. With a frown, the red porcupine noticed a small spill on the floor and was about to clean it up when the phone in the living room began to ring. She looked at it hesitantly before picking it up, hoping that it wasn't another prank call from Cuddles.

"H-hello?" There was no response aside from the sound of someone breathing at the other end. "C-Cuddles, if this i-is another o-one of your d-dumb pranks, I'm n-not falling for it this t-time! G-goodbye!" Feeling a little unnerved, she was about to hang up when a familiar voice quickly shouted.

"Flaky, wait! It's me, Flippy!"

"O-oh, F-Flippy." She felt her heartbeat quicken and while she no longer felt afraid, her nervousness had doubled. The two of them had been growing much closer lately and were now something more than friends, but neither of them had yet to say the three words that would mean the most. "H-h-how are y-you d-doing?" _Curse my nervous stuttering!_

"I'm doing pretty well, thanks for asking. How about you?"

"I-I'm g-good. W-was there something y-you wanted to t-talk about?" There was a long moment of silence that made Flaky wonder if Flippy had hung up. "Flippy?"

"Would-you-like-to-go-out-to-dinner-with-me?" He blurted rapidly.

"O-oh…" She paused in stunned silence. Flaky couldn't see, but on the other side of the line Flippy was face-palming while his evil side laughed. _Smooth. Real smooth, soldier._

"F-Flaky?" Flippy asked nervously, hoping that his request wouldn't be shot down.

To both of their surprise, Flaky responded in a clear, if dreamy, voice "I would love to go to dinner with you."

Flippy, relieved, gave her the details. "I'll come pick you up at about 6 o'clock. We'll be going to Petunia's restaurant."

Flaky, still in a dream-like daze, simply agreed and stood there for a moment before realizing that she needed to get ready. She quickly ran towards the stairs and up to her bedroom. To her dismay, she realized that she was still holding the phone and had knocked over the table that it had been resting on. She bit her lip while she thought and settled for setting the phone down on her sofa. _I'll pick that up later._

The first thing she decided to do was to try and wash all of the flakes out of her quills. One long, intense shower later, she still found herself brushing out a few bits of dandruff. _This'll have to do,_ she thought as she glanced at the clock and hurriedly dried off, leaving behind a very shredded towel. Now she had to pick something to wear.

Clothes flew out of her closet and began landing chaotically throughout her bedroom. _Too big, too small, too plain, too flashy… why did I ever buy _this?…_ too dressy, too casual…._ She despaired at finding anything right and imagined the disappointment on Flippy's face as he broke up with her. In her desperation, she upended her jewelry box and frantically rummaged through its contents in a manner similar to Lifty and Shifty. _Too girly, too silky, too long, too Giggles…_ her internal mantra continued. Finally she settled on a simple red bow that her grandmother had given her for her birthday. Pleased that she had finally made a choice, she glanced once more at the clock and saw that she still had ten minutes to spare. She hummed happily as she made her way downstairs when a loud beeping sounded. _Hmm? The smoke detector? Oh no, my cake!_

Horrified, she tore through the living room, stumbling over a sofa and a coffee table, and quickly yanked open the oven. Black smoke billowed out, making the porcupine cough and step backwards and slip on a tiny puddle of spilled batter. She frantically tried to grab onto something and ended up overturning her mixing bowl which landed on her head. _Could this get any worse?_ The doorbell rang._ I had to ask._

With a sigh, Flaky wiped the worst of the batter out of her quills, opened a window, and blasted her charred cake with a fire extinguisher before answering her door.

Outside, Flippy stood wearing his usual army attire along with a little green bowtie that he was fidgeting with. A single rose, minus the thorns, was twirling in his paws. His eyes widened slightly upon seeing her. "Hey Flaky, you look really nice. I love the bow." He reached forward and gently brushed some cake batter off of her cheek. "Were you busy doing something?"

"N-no no, n-nothing at all!" she said quickly shutting the door so that Flippy wouldn't see the mess inside. "J-just a little baking!" _Rats, now what if he asks about the cake?_ To her relief, he just gave her one of his dazzling smiles. She admired his rounded buck teeth and thought about how much cuter he looked with them than his evil side's fangs.

"Do I have something in my teeth?" the green bear asked self-consciously.

She shook her head. "Y-you look amazing." As they got into his jeep, she noticed a little box wrapped in yellow paper with a red bow. "W-what's that?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, just a little surprise for you," he replied with a wink. With that, the two of them headed off.

* * *

Toothy greeted the couple at the front doors of the restaurant with a wide, buck-toothed grin. "Welcome to the grand re-opening of Petunia's! I'm glad that you two could make it. We've got a table reserved over there just for the two of you," he said, pointing over to the afore mentioned table.

Flippy nodded his thanks and they began to head over.

"Psst! Flaky!"

She turned to see Toothy holding something and she walked over.

"Take this. Y'know, just in case." He passed her a small pamphlet titled _In Case of Fliqpy Attack_.

She frowned and pointed at the name "Fliqpy." "How do you even pronounce that?"

The purple beaver shrugged. "The pamphlet company was charging per letter and Petunia needed some way of distinguishing Evil Flippy from Good Flippy. Anyways, enjoy your dinner! I hope you don't die!" He waved cheerily as she walked over to the table. Seeing no one else approaching, he sighed and looked over towards their direction.

Petunia had wanted a special section reserved for couples. There, Flippy was holding hands with a blushing Flaky, Cuddles and Giggles were laughing over some joke, Nutty was gazing at a chocolate bunny, and the Mole was sitting with a confused looking Lammy who had brought along Mr. Pickles. Toothy sighed again. "Ahh, love…"

A light knocking brought him out of his daydream. "Oh, Sniffles! How can I help you?"

"I need to see Petunia." The blue anteater looked tired, as though he hadn't been sleeping well recently. In his hands was a small wrapped package that had a slightly ominous feeling to it.

"Er, sure. She's in the kitchen right now," he said pointing. "Listen, Sniffles, are you alright? That thing in your hands isn't going to kill us, is it?" He was talking to empty air now though since Sniffles had walked off towards the kitchen, leaving Toothy very ill at ease.

Sniffles walked into the hot kitchen where Petunia was chopping up carrots while Mime was working at the grill. A ding came from a bell at the small window and Petunia walked over to pick up the order. "Hey Mime, we're going to need some more fries for table #2."

The purple deer gave her a silent thumbs up and tossed some sliced potatoes into the deep fryer, silently whistling while he worked.

Petunia finally noticed the blue anteater standing there in the doorway. "Oh, Sniffles, how can I help you?" she asked cheerfully. Her smile morphed into a look of terror as Sniffles unwrapped his package, revealing the Cursed Idol. "Sniffles! Why would you bring _that_ into _here_!? I thought you were smarter than that!"

Sniffles just looked at the skunk who was now hyperventilating and backing away slowly. "I just need to know if you still have that Super-Blender that I modified for you a while ago."

The skunk gulped and nodded. "I-in the back, next to the fryer. G-go do whatever it is you have to do. I'll be washing some lettuce and pretending that you don't have a weapon of mass destruction in my restaurant. By the way, you didn't have to threaten me you know." Petunia began to scrub the lettuce with all her might, still hyperventilating and picking up every little piece that fell off.

"I'm not threatening. I'm desperate," Sniffles muttered as he tossed the idol into the blender. He set the dial to "obliterate" and waited to see what happened.

At first, the idol simply bounced around inside. Soon though, little chips of it began to fly off and small cracks appeared on its surface. Sniffles stared with glee as the torturous artifact was finally being destroyed before his very eyes. There was a faint wailing sound though, and as Sniffles felt his watch vibrating, he also felt dread settle in the pit of his stomach.

"Ice delivery!" Lumpy shouted as he barged in through the back door.

Sniffles turned grimly to Petunia. "Evacuate the restaurant. Now."

Petunia nodded in horror, already able to guess what would happen as the clumsy moose walked forward. She walked over to an intercom, pressed the button, and tried to suppress her mounting hysteria while she spoke.

* * *

Flippy and Flaky were staring into each other's eyes while Toothy brought over their dessert. "Y'know Flaky, I'm really glad that I got to meet you. People are usually so afraid of my when I first flip-out that they tend to avoid me for the rest of their lives. But you, you actually came back and still wanted to be friends. Granted, in most places, people don't come back to life, but that's what makes it even more impressive. You may think that you're too timid of a person, but I think you're the bravest person that I've ever met." Flippy pulled out the box from the jeep.

Flaky stopped chewing and stared at it, wondering what it could be. It was too big for a ring, that she was sure of. _Besides, it would be silly to get married after going out for only such a short while,_ she chided herself. Still though, she could feel herself blushing. _Flippy thinks that _I'm_ brave?_ She looked up into his smiling face.

"There's something that I've wanted to tell you for a long time. Flaky, I l-"

"May I have your attention please?"

Flippy cursed inwardly as Petunia's voice sounded throughout the restaurant and interrupted him.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, we kindly ask that everyone follow the instructions on their pamphlets in a calm and orderly manner. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill." A loud splash and sizzling sound was then heard and a popping noise like gunshots echoed throughout the restaurant accompanied by Petunia's screams. Everyone was silent, and the only noise was the light sizzling of oil coming from the kitchen. Then there was a deep, malevolent laugh, and everyone started screaming and racing for the exits.

The front doors were crowded with people trying to escape, while others barricaded themselves in the janitor's closet and bathrooms, which had reinforced steel doors in case of such a situation. Flaky just sat there though and stared into the golden eyes of Evil Flippy like a deer would stare into headlights.

She finally snapped out of her daze when Evil Flippy pulled out his knife. She drew in a breath to scream, only to start choking on the piece of food that she still had in her mouth.

Cuddles glanced back to see Flaky choking while Evil Flippy watched in amusement and he felt his daredevil side urge him into doing something dangerous: helping another Tree Friend avoid dying. "C'mon Giggles, we can't let Flaky die. Flippy could barely forgive himself last time; this time their whole romance could go up in smoke!" He then dashed off without waiting for a response.

The yellow rabbit's slippers helped him to sneak behind Evil Flippy and pull his beret over his face. "Quickly, Giggles!" he shouted as he tried to choke Evil Flippy with his own dog tags. "Give her the Heimlich!"

The pink chipmunk hesitated upon seeing Flaky's sharp quills and chose to grab Cuddles slippers so that she could strike her back. "Breathe!" _Thump!_ "Breathe already!" _Thump!_ "I said breathe!" _Thump!_

Giggles sighed with relief when she saw the piece of food fly out of Flaky's mouth and proceeded to drag the semiconscious porcupine to safety. "She's good, Cuddles! You can stop now!" She looked up only to shriek in fright.

Evil Flippy had dismembered Cuddles and was now roasting one of his legs over a candle flame. "It's quite rude interrupt someone's date," he said taking a bite out of Cuddles' leg. "Perhaps you'd like to join _your_ date?"

Flaky awoke to see Giggles being strangled by two fuzzy yellow things. It took a moment for her to brain to realize that those fuzzy things were Cuddles' _ears_. She gasped and tried to back away, only to draw Evil Flippy's attention.

He grinned at her. "Good, you're awake. Now we can finish what you started." He wrapped his paws around her throat and began to squeeze as hard as he could, laughing at her futile struggles and the tears streaming down her cheeks.

_This is wrong…_ a soft voice said in his mind.

_Shut up. I'm only taking care of the enemy._

_You're lying…. She's not an enemy…. She's a friend…. She's my friend…._

_She's making you weak! You don't need friends!_

_Stop it…. Stop hurting her…._

_Never!_

_I said STOP IT!_

Flaky was thrown back hard enough to get stuck to a wall as Flippy clutched his head and screamed. She blearily opened her eyes, her vision blurred by tears and lack of oxygen, and saw a green shape approaching her, one hand outstretched. "S-stay away!" she shouted, struggling to free herself. She grabbed a plate shard off of the ground. "I SAID GET AWAY FROM ME!" She swung her arm as hard as she could and heard a soft gasp as the shard plunged into flesh.

Flippy looked down at the large porcelain piece embedded in his stomach, warm, red blood spilling out of the wound. Strangely, he didn't feel like flipping out. All he felt was a horrible crumbling feeling in his chest as his heart shattered and left behind an empty void. He stared into the terror and hate filled eyes of his beloved porcupine who gasped. Then he turned and ran away as fast as he could, past the bodies of Giggles and Cuddles, past the stares of cowering Tree Friends, past his jeep. He ran and ran, down the empty street, ignoring the tears that stung his eyes, ignoring the blood coursing down his legs, just wanting to run and get away from the voice inside of his mind.

_You're a killing machine, Flippy. She could never love you._

He didn't argue back. The only thing he could think of was _I'm a monster._

* * *

Flaky stared out the door, devastated. She had once again been able to fight for herself, only to hurt the one that she loved. Her fear of Evil Flippy had been so great, she had stabbed first and asked questions later, questions that burned to think about. Her bear had fought off the great darkness inside of him, had come to comfort her and apologize, and she had stabbed him and pushed him away. Carefully, she made her way over the bodies of her friends back to her table where Flippy's present lay almost forgotten. She slowly unwrapped it and opened the box to find a gold, heart shaped locked. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she opened it and saw a picture of one of their first days together. She read the tiny inscription on the other side.

_To my dearest Flaky, the bravest porcupine I've ever known. Even in my darkest hours, you can always call me back into the light. I'll always be here for you, even if you can't see me. With all my love, Flippy._

The tears now flowed freely down her face as she clutched the locked and sobbed. She stared at Cuddles and Giggles, together even in death, and sprinted outside, knowing what she had to do. She looked up outside and saw a blur of light shooting across the sky. _Please, don't let it be too late,_ she wished. Then she took off in the direction she'd seen Flippy go.

She didn't see the blue streak of light turn midair towards the restaurant, nor did she hear the odd sound it made. Hm-hmhmHMMM! The blur crashed into the restaurant. Minutes later, the place exploded.

**Author's Note: Woo, another chapter! Sections with relationship stuff tend to be a bit trickier for me, but this little side plot should be wrapped up soon in the next chapter. Then we should be able to turn the focus back to the main plot.**

**XFantasy-chanX: Flippy and Flaky do make a really great couple; they're one of my favorites. Sniffles is making some progress in destroying the idol, but he's still got to find a way to keep the idol from destroying him first! More on that next chapter.**

**JaMaL HaDeS: The crazy Russell scene was pretty fun to write, especially having him battle Evil Flippy, but I'm afraid he's only a minor character in this fic. As for Lumpy, who wouldn't celebrate knowing you're much less likely to die?**

**Umm, I had more notes, but I can't remember them right now, so I'll just leave off with saying read and review!**


	5. For Love's Sake

Stars twinkled dimly in the sky, a pale sliver of moon casting a little light upon the cold, quiet streets of Happy Tree Town. A fire burned brightly in the distance, adding warmth and color to the otherwise dark landscape, drawing the attention of those who were still awake. It was not an uncommon sight, yet there was something terribly fascinating about the flames. Very few saw the lone red figure dashing away through the streets, and none gave her more than a cursory glance before turning their eyes back to the blaze.

The darkness hid Flaky and made her little more than a shadow running through the streets. Her frequent practice of screaming and running in fear had given her incredible speed and stamina, boosted by her love for her friend and her fear that she would be too late. She spotted a glistening red streak in the light of the streetlamp ahead of her; she was almost relieved that Flippy was bleeding so much. Without the trail to follow, she was sure she would never be able to track him, but it concerned her too. _How much blood has Flippy already lost, and how much more can he still lose?_ Instead of answering herself, she simply started running faster.

She flitted in and out of sight amongst the streetlamps, following the scarlet trail until she saw a sight that made her blood run cold: a solitary green figure lying in a pool of blood. Stunned into silence, she slowly approached, flakes falling off as sobs threatened to shake her body. It was then that she noticed some small details: the figure had fur that was a darker shade of green and ears that were too triangular. She felt relief, then guilt, as she realized it wasn't Flippy, then horror as she heard a gurgling gasp from Lifty. "W-what h-happened to y-you?" she dared to ask, approaching with trembling steps.

"F-Flippy…." The poor raccoon was barely conscious but obviously in a great deal of pain. One paw was trying to keep his organs from spilling out of his torso with his blood, while the other was lying nearby. Her turned to face her and revealed that his eyes were gone as well. "S-Shifty and I… we thought… he looked weak… would make a good target… so wrong…."

Tears began to brim in the red porcupine's eyes as she listened to Lifty try to recount what had happened to him, but she promised herself not to cry just yet. The night was still young, and she had still had much more to face.

"Worst part… flipped back… walked away… like didn't care…." Lifty was growing less coherent as the pain intensified and threatened to push him over the edge, but he pushed on, as though carrying a message of great importance. "Said… monster… looked so… broken… like… surrender…."

The words cut her deeply; she knew his pain and that of anyone he met tonight were her fault and hers alone. She turned to hurry onward, but felt a weak tug on her leg.

"P-please… d-don't l-leave… l-like Shifty…." He was shaking now and Flaky was sure that if he had eyes, he would have been crying.

Flaky could feel only compassion and pity for the hapless thief, constantly given a torturous death and abandoned by his brother, so she agreed to wait with him for the next several minutes.

"T-thank… y-you…." Uttering those final words, he passed away with a smile on his face.

_Don't cry._ She tried to make Lifty look more peaceful in death, but there was little she could do about his violent injuries. _Don't cry._ She got up and continued running, ignoring the blood on her hands and feet. _Don't cry._ Why couldn't she have been there for Flippy like she had just done for Lifty? _Don't cry._ Did she really even love Flippy, or was she lying to herself? _Don't cry._ She thought about her fear of him, of the night on the highway and tonight at the restaurant. Both times she had stabbed him. _Don't cry._ Then she thought of the good times with Flippy, his birthday party (before everyone died), the night at the movies, and the day at the park, and she thought about how devastated she was when she thought he was dead. _I love him with all my heart and I won't stop until I find him and make things right_.

To her surprise, the trail led her all the way back to Flippy's house. The spines on her back rose as she noticed that every window had been shattered and the door had been literally ripped off of its hinges and broken in half. The place looked like something out of one of her worse nightmares, but she saw the trail lead into the house, and knew she had to go in there. _Be brave._

The interior of the house was even darker than outside and every light had been smashed to bits. A single bloody rose lay on the doorstep, petals crushed. Curiously, every reflective surface in the house had been meticulously destroyed, as though someone was afraid of what could be seen inside. From the kitchen, a pained gasping sound could be heard and there was a faint smell of something burning.

Flaky tread carefully around the debris, jumping at the slightest bump or crackle, even more afraid of what she might find. Death was common in this town; intentionally ending one's own life was not. In fact, it was even speculated that such an act would circumvent the curse and lead to permanent death. "F-Flippy?" She decided to follow the smoke and peered into the kitchen. What she saw nearly made her retch.

Shifty was on top of the stove looking as though he were doing a push-up, but all four burners were on with one of his paws on each. Just under him was a metal spike that threatened to pierce him through the chest if he stopped pressing down and burning himself, and several small stab wounds indicated that he had already slipped a few times. As Flaky walked in, she found his eyes lying on the counter in front of him.

"P-please… no more… I'm s-sorry…." the wreck of a raccoon whimpered. "I'm sorry… I didn't m-mean to abandon him…."

"S-Shifty it's m-m-me. F-Flaky."

"F-Flaky? P-please… h-help me!" Flaky quickly shut off the burners and removed the spike, allowing the raccoon to finally collapse in exhaustion. He began to laugh weakly in relief. "W-we have to go. Before he g-gets back." Shifty struggled to get up but collapsed and nearly screamed in pain when he tried putting weight on his paws.

"I-I'm s-sorry Shifty, b-but I h-have to f-find F-Flippy. D-do you kn-know where h-he is?"

"Oh… he's upstairs somewhere… thanks for helping anyway…."

"S-Shifty?" Flaky nudged the raccoon, but it was no use. He had finally succumbed to shock and would likely die very soon. Flaky picked him up off of the stove and gently set him down on a cushion before grabbing a knife and heading for the stairs.

The shadowy stairs looked like something straight out of a horror movie, but Flaky could hear a familiar sound at the top. "F-Flippy?" The red porcupine began to ascend one step at a time and the sound became clearer, a distinct sobbing of someone in utter despair. She continued her slow gallows' march to the top, trembling all over and resisting every impulse to just run away and never look back. _Courage, Flaky. For Flippy._

When she reached the top, she noticed a single room with light coming from it. The blood trail led there and the sobbing sound came from there, so she decided to go in.

Flippy sat with his back to her, but she could clearly see his reflection in the full-length mirror in front of him. He was sobbing hopelessly into his hands, tears leaking through his fingers, and blood pooling on the floor around him. Flaky felt like she was being cut apart inside, but she knew that it probably wasn't even close to how he was feeling right now. "Flippy?"

_Something's wrong._ She could feel fear surging through her again as she saw Flippy stop crying and rise while his reflection remained utterly desolate. Adding to the uncanniness was how still the army bear looked. "F-Flippy?" She gasped when she saw him turn around.

"Hello there, little spiky one," Evil Flippy said, golden eyes shining in cruel amusement. "Flaky, is it?" He grinned at her with sharp teeth when she nodded. "Here to finish us off?" he asked casually, fingering the plate shard still embedded in his stomach. "I'm afraid you're going to need something a little shaper than that butter knife you have there."

Flaky barely managed to duck out of the way of a sharpened toothbrush that nearly impaled her head, but she stood her ground in the doorway.

The grin on the evil bear's face was quickly replaced with a frown. "Aren't you afraid of me?"

"I-I've come here for F-Flippy." She gasped and had another near miss, this time with razor blades thrown at her torso. She then felt herself het slammed into the wall again, her spikes pinning her in place.

"You," said Evil Flippy with an angry snarl on his face as he slowly began choking her, "are a traitor. The absolute _worst_ kind of enemy out there. We will _never_ forgive you for what you have done. I never even _liked_ you in the first place. Now, with old sad-eyes out of the way, I can finally catch up on a few weeks' worth of murder." His grip on her throat slackened slightly. "Any last words before I squeeze your head off?"

_This is it._ She mustered up all of her remaining courage and stared straight into those golden eyes, searching for the Flippy she knew and loved. "F-Flippy, I'm sorry for a-all the p-pain I've put you through. I-I'm sorry f-for all the t-times my fear g-got the best of me. I want you t-to know though, I love you Flippy. I've always loved you w-with all my heart. I would r-run through a f-field of f-flaming ch-chicks if it meant that I c-could be with you. P-please, c-come back to me." A single tear leaked out of her eye. "Come back to me." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the Flippy in the mirror gasp and look up.

"How touching," the physical Flippy sneered. He began to finish off Flaky when something struck him from the side, knocking him over. "You!" Evil Flippy snarled looking up.

"Me." Good Flippy picked up his evil counterpart and threw him out the door. "You're not going to hurt Flaky, or _anyone else,_ anymore!" He drew out his bowie knife and charged.

Flaky sat dumbfounded as she watched what appeared to be Flippy fighting himself. However, if she looked at the Flippy in the room and the Flippy in the mirror, she could sort of piece together what was happening.

Good Flippy tried to stab Evil Flippy with the knife, only to have Evil Flippy grab a candelabrum and parry it away. He forced Good Flippy to back away and prepared to deliver a crushing blow when his legs were swept out from under him. The two of them continued their fight through the house, using everything from picture frames to table legs as weapons, and finally ended back in the bathroom where they had started.

"This ends now," Evil Flippy snarled, pinning Good Flippy under him. He gasped in pain as he felt something pierce his ankles and Good Flippy leapt up and pinned him against the mirror.

"I agree." Good Flippy pulled a long red quill out of Evil Flippy's ankles and stabbed him in the abdomen with it.

There was a long, drawn-out scream as the mirror shattered, forcing Flaky to cover her eyes. When she looked up, she saw Flippy breathing heavily, back turned towards her. "F-Flippy?"

He turned around and gave her an exhausted, buck-toothed smile. On the ground, Evil Flippy's reflection could be seen snarling in the mirror shards as it faded away. "It's really me, Flaky." He tried to walk towards her and wobbled a few steps before collapsing.

"Flippy!" Flaky rushed over to her bear and saw that he wasn't looking too good. Blood loss was catching up to him and the injuries he had sustained while fighting made things even worse. "D-don't worry Flippy, I'll g-get you to the hospital."

Flippy chuckled weakly and merely shook his head. "I don't think a hospital can help me now." He looked up into her tear-streaked face. "Don't cry, Flaky. I'll be back tomorrow good as new."

"Then what was the point of this?" Flaky sobbed in frustration. "I couldn't save you! You're still going to die!"

"Well, did you mean what you said earlier?"

"What? Of course. I love you Flippy, and I always will."

"Then tonight was the opposite of a total loss. I love you too, Flaky. All my love is yours and yours alone."

Flaky cried even harder and the two lay in each other's arms until she had fallen asleep, and he had passed away.

**Author's Note: Wow, this is certainly darker and more serious than the previous chapters. I also ended up splitting it again because the last part(s) didn't really fit in the same chapter. I hope that doesn't become a habit of mine. Also, part of me realizes that perhaps I should have made the Flippy x Flaky part a separate fic and just continued with the main plot, but I guess what's done is done. So, the NEXT chapter will be the conclusion to the Flippy and Flaky romance arc, then the chapter after that will (hopefully) return to the main story line.**

**I still feel like I'm forgetting something. Hmm... Well, read and review!**


	6. Third Time

_The next night…_

Flippy's house was still a wreck and, to everyone's misfortune, Lumpy had resurrected early and killed off Handy. Flaky's house had burned down shortly after while Lumpy was looking for cheese, but fortunately for the couple, Sniffles had offered them a place to stay. He said that he didn't plan to leave his lab for the entire day and that the bear and porcupine were welcome to use his house until Handy came back and rebuilt theirs. The two of them were now lying on the roof and peacefully gazing at the stars.

"Ooh, Flaky, look! A shooting star!" Flippy pointed up at a streak of light flying through the night sky. He turned and smiled at Flaky. "Make a wish."

She responded by snuggling up against him, careful not to poke him with her quills. "There's n-nothing in the world that could make this moment more p-perfect." She gazed up at the star and noticed that it was a similar shade of blue to the one that she had seen yesterday. It was probably a coincidence, but she couldn't help but feel like the stars were watching over her and Flippy. _Thank you,_ she thought silently. Her peaceful smile turned into a puzzled frown when she noticed the star had changed directions and now seemed to be headed toward them. "Umm, Flippy?"

"Hm?" He looked up to see the light getting closer and heard a faint sound. Hm-hmhmHMMM! "What is tha-"

Splendid the super flying squirrel flew by overhead at blinding speed, narrowly missing the couple on the roof as he hurried off to wherever he was going. Unfortunately, the slipstream left behind in his wake pulled the two of them after him.

"AAAAHH!" Flaky felt herself fly into the air and towards the edge of the roof. She could already imagine herself smashing into the ground, probably breaking her neck or splattering into a mess and causing Flippy to flip-out again. _Fate is so cruel._ She closed her eyes so she wouldn't see her demise when she felt something snag her leg and pull her back, stopping just at the ledge. Her eyes stayed closed until she realized that she wasn't falling and turned around to see what had saved her.

Flippy had one paw digging into the tiles of the roof, the other one holding onto his dog tags which were wrapped around Flaky's ankles. His beret was caught in the wind and flew away, but the green bear kept his focus intently on the red porcupine. "It's okay, Flaky, I won't let you go! I promise!" he shouted over the howling wind. The two of them were battered by the fierce gale, but Flippy kept his promise and held on until the wind died down and the two of them dropped back down.

Flaky felt Flippy wrap his arms around her and she let herself shake in his comforting embrace, frightened by her near death experience. She soon realized that Flippy was shaking too. "W-what's the m-matter Flippy? A-are you c-cold?"

His grip on Flaky tightened. "No Flaky, I was s-scared. I was afraid that you were doing to d-die." His voice cracked on the word die.

She forced out a weak laugh. "S-silly bear," she said trying to lighten the mood, "I would've come right back to you the next day."

"Regardless, I wouldn't want to lose you for even a moment."

The two of them just lay there in each other's arms until a loud bang sounded from somewhere downstairs.

Flaky felt Flippy's tremors intensify and saw his eyes closed in deep concentration. Instead of running away though, she did something neither of them would have expected: she kissed him. At first, his lips were firm and unyielding, but as his shaking slowly stopped, they softened and kissed her back passionately. She pulled back and smiled at Flippy's slightly shocked face. "T-that's how our f-first date should have ended." She leaned forward and the two of them kissed again.

* * *

Far down in Sniffles' underground lab, the blue anteater was putting the finishing touches on a device that should finally be able to destroy the Cursed Idol. He stepped back behind a thick wall of specially refined glass and glared at the platform where the object in question was sitting. Every precaution had been taken: the entire room was sealed metal, the ceilings and walls were reinforced, and even those were reinforced. He pushed a button and watched as the idol fell into his latest contraption.

It was a cylinder shaped machine with several chambers set at extreme temperatures. Jutting out of the walls were blades of various shapes and sizes and in the center were three, gigantic, spinning blender blades. The machine itself rotated at high speeds to ensure as much destruction as possible to whatever unfortunate object was trapped inside.

The idol first landed in a heat chamber where flamethrowers blasted the idol and made it red hot. It was then struck by several blades that sent it spinning into a cold chamber with freeze rays that supercooled the idol in a matter of seconds. More blades continued to pulverize it as it was sent spinning through the machine.

Sniffles laughed and swore he could hear the idol cracking and wailing in pain. This was almost as satisfying to him as catching one of the ants. He had spent all day outlining everything that could possible go wrong and even things that could impossibly go wrong, designing failsafes with failsafes. Loose bolt? A machine would quickly stamp it back into place. Power shortage? There were several back-up generators just in case. Earthquake? The chamber had been designed just for that. Lumpy? Well, that wasn't going to be problem today.

A green light lit up on the side of the machine and Sniffles walked over to examine the results. He lifted the lid, waving away the odd yellowish steam that came out, and peered inside. Cheering could be heard throughout the house as he picked up what was best described as yellow bits of stone. Throwing them into the air like confetti, he did a little victory dance and marched up to the kitchen, where he began preparing something to eat, and promptly fell asleep at the table.

* * *

_The next morning…_

The sun rose slowly over Happy Tree Town while Handy coordinated a large-scale repair to any damages that had happened in his absence. The sleepy residents began to get up and prepare for another day. Sunbeams gently swept over Sniffles' house and revealed Flippy and Flaky cuddled together, having fallen asleep while stargazing.

Flippy stirred first as he felt the warmth of the sun, still smiling from his dream where he had been riding a unicorn with Flaky. He looked over at her sleeping form, her face serene and unmarked by anxiety. He kissed her lightly on the forehead as she woke. "G'morning, Flaky."

"Morning, Flippy." She shifted slightly to get more comfortable when she heard a loud scream coming from downstairs. The two of them bolted upright, no longer tired.

"That sounded like Sniffles' scream," Flippy said with concern. They hurried back inside and rushed downstairs to find Sniffles lying on the kitchen floor and staring in horror at the Cursed Idol, which seemed to be smiling smugly at him from his table.

**Author's Note: A shorter chapter than usual, but a fitting conclusion to this arc. Looks like the Idol can ****resurrect just like the Happy Tree Friends; how will Sniffles handle this new development?**

**Guest: To answer your first question, yes, the fight was Flippy fighting himself like in Autopsy Turvy, though Evil Flippy started as the one in control this time. In answer to your second question, Flippy will probably propose to Flaky, but the result may vary depending on the ending that I choose. I've drafted a mostly happy ending, a mostly tragic ending, and a somewhat ambivalent ending, so you'll just have to wait and see!**

**JaMaL HaDeS: Ah, thanks for the reminder! I'm glad you found the pamphlets funny, and I hope this chapter answered the question you asked in chapter 4.**

**XFantasy-chanX: Though Fliqpy is probably raging somewhere inside Flippy's subconscious right now, Flippy and Flaky are quite happy. Thanks for the reassurance! And, uh, bye?**

**While I've still got to decide on the cast for the next chapter/arc, I do already have a setting in mind. My advice: dress warm!**


	7. Vacation

_One month later…_

Not much changed in Happy Tree Town. Flippy and Flaky's romance had been the talk of the town for a few days, with Petunia and Giggles throwing a little party with Handy and Cuddles to celebrate their relationships (Disco Bear was _not_ invited). Everyone gradually returned to their normal patterns of life and death, where the biggest news usually involved Lumpy and his dumb act of the day or Splendid's latest act of heroism. If one paid close enough attention though, one would notice little differences from how things use to be.

Most noticeably, Flippy rarely flipped out anymore. He would schedule appointments to see Lumpy whenever he happened to be a therapist, with moderately successful results. While there, he would also often bump into Russell, who was concerned that he would end up as crazy as Flippy, though he never said so aloud. Lumpy, along with Toothy, now had medical jobs more frequently due to Sniffles' seclusion. No one knew what the absent anteater was up to nowadays, though everyone assumed it must be something big since he was almost never seen in town. Finally, though few realized this, Lifty and Shifty were not stealing as much. The two raccoon twins' relationship had been worsening recently and the two could barely cooperate long enough to accomplish even the simplest of heists.

Nutty had become a lot unhappier as of late. With Lifty and Shifty fighting, his supply of candy had dwindled drastically, and the few Tree Friends who could tolerate his bizarreness were often driven away whenever he began exhibiting candy withdrawal. Since his best friend, Sniffles, was barely ever around anymore, Nutty had nobody to hang out with, and the candy crazed squirrel had come to realize that he needed something else in his life besides candy: friends.

The dejected green squirrel got up this morning and began his usual routine, donning his candy and preparing his sugary breakfast. He tried to carefully pour one of his last two bags of sugar so that he could make it last longer but quickly gave up on the attempt and just began gobbling it up straight from the bag. For a short while, he was able to enjoy his sugary bliss, but when he came down from his sugar high, he crashed harder than usual.

Glancing at the cupboard, Nutty sighed sadly. He wasn't going to get paid until later this week, and the grocery store had too little sugar at too high of a price now, even with his employee discount. He went outside and tried to ignore his visions of candy everywhere. Walking down the street, he passed by Cuddles and Toothy and waved to them, giggling, but the two of them just hurried down the street faster. "Awwww…." Reality was starting to set into his usually sugar hazed mind, and he was learning that all actions have consequences. Killing them over a sweet yesterday probably hadn't helped him make any new friends.

He continued through town, trying to find something to do, but luck wasn't on his side today. Both the café and the grocery store were closed today and he couldn't find anyone to hang out with. Even Flaky had said that she already had plans for the day. Feeling somewhat desperate, he went over to Sniffles' house and started banging on the door, hoping that the anteater would answer for once.

To his surprise, the door opened, though he couldn't see anyone inside. He turned on the lights, revealing a very tidy, yet very dusty room that looked as though it hadn't been used in a while. Nutty spotted a small bowl of chocolate in the kitchen and quickly hurried over to help himself, laughing and enjoying the sweet treat. The jittery squirrel grabbed a few to take with him and began looking around the rest of the house, finding that the entire place was covered in a layer of dust. _Where could he be?_ Nutty grew increasingly concerned as he found more signs that the house had not been lived in for a while, and he ran frantically around until he remembered that Sniffles had a lab nearby.

Nutty ran over and began beating rapidly enough on the door that it sounded like a thrumming noise. "Sniffles? Sniffles, heeheehee, are you in there?"

Fortunately, the anteater answered the door, but Nutty was shocked into silence at his appearance. Sniffles' glasses were askew on his face and his fur was rumpled and discolored in several places. He had large bags under his eyes and, most concerning to Nutty, his usually bright and curious eyes were dull and unfocused. "Nutty?"

"Sniffles? You look tired," the squirrel giggled nervously. The two of them just stood there silently with Nutty chuckling occasionally. "Um, can I, haha, come inside?"

Without a reply, Sniffles turned and went inside, leaving the door open. Nutty assumed that this was a yes and followed inside. Charts and diagrams covered almost every inch of the walls and even parts of the floor. A small statue rested inside of a glass case, giving off a creepy feeling like it was watching the duo. Nutty giggled nervously upon seeing it and quickly turned away to see Sniffles standing before a large monitor.

"Well this is, heheh, interesting…."

Sniffles handed a large lollipop to a very grateful Nutty who immediately began chomping down on it with delight. "So Nutty, what brings you here?" he asked in a distracted voice.

"Well, I was worried about you, and… there's no one else in town who likes me. Cuddles and Toothy are mad at me, all the girls are taking a vacation, Disco Bear is creepy, Flippy scares me, Lumpy and Russell are out fishing, Pop and Cub _really_ don't like me, hahaha…." Nutty trailed off as he noticed Sniffles wasn't really paying attention. "Do you want to play checkers?"

Instead of answering, Sniffles picked up a map off of the floor and began to jot down something.

Nutty peered over his shoulder and tried to make sense of the red scribbles that covered a large portion of the map. "What are you up to?"

At first, Sniffles just stood there silently like he hadn't heard Nutty's question. Then he began to mumble something that Nutty had to strain to hear. "I've been looking for them… everywhere… the mines, the desert, the lake, the cemetery… all I've found is nothing, nothing, _nothing, nothing!_" He emphasized each nothing with a fierce red slash across the map.

Nutty had stopped laughing entirely and was now staring at his friend with concern. "Um, looking for what?"

With unexpected force, the blue anteater grabbed the green squirrel and pulled him so close that their eyeballs were almost touching. His expression was somewhat manic and crazed. "The _idols!_" he hissed. "They're out there, killing our friends as we speak! We have to destroy them first, before they destroy us! But keep quiet. I think they might be on to us." He glared suspiciously in the direction of the idol sitting in the lab before covering it with a thick black cloth.

"Sniffles-"

"I'm not crazy! There are plenty of other Tree Friends who know how dangerous these things are! They thought they were so smart, but I figured out how to beat them! They're just hiding, afraid of what could happen. Soon, though, death shall stalk us no more!" Sniffles then began laughing so hard, he made Nutty look sane.

"Sniffles!" Nutty grabbed his friend by the shoulders and waited until he calmed down. Then, in the calmest, most serious voice he could manage, he said, "I know you're doing something important. I know that it could possibly change the world. But I also know that you're tired."

"But-"

"No. If you're tired, you could screw up. Don't look at me like that; you know I'm right. _I'm_ supposed the crazy one. Now, I think you need a vacation."

Sniffles stared at his friend. He had never seen him act this serious before about anything besides candy, and even then that was rare. "Okay," he mumbled.

"Good." Nutty patted him on the head and started giggling again. "First though, do you have any more candy?"

* * *

The two friends exited the ski lodge, Nutty's arms laden with marshmallows. Sniffles was starting to look somewhat better now that he wasn't completely obsessing over the idols. He even stopped to say hi to Flaky, Petunia, Giggles, and Lammy, who were going up the ski lift. "This is kind of nice," he said to Nutty, who was busy tossing marshmallows into his mouth. "It's really… relaxing."

"Mmmmmm,"the squirrel replied. He closed his eyes, savoring his marshmallows, and bumped into Sniffles, who had stopped walking. "Huh?"

Sniffles stood stiffly, staring off into space. A look of dread crossed his face and he spun around to face Nutty. "Everyone here is in terrible danger! I can _feel_ something here. Something… _evil_… something like the id-"

Nutty jammed a marshmallow into Sniffles' snout before he could finish his sentence. His cheerful expression had turned stern. "Don't even start, Sniffles. You said that while we were preparing to leave and pretty much every few minutes on the way here. You're becoming even more paranoid than Flaky, no offence to her. I don't want to even _hear_ that word come out of your mouth. This is a _vacation_. Understood?"

The anteater nodded, the marshmallow stuck in his snout.

"Good!" With that, Nutty changed back to his usual cheerful self, took the marshmallow back from Sniffles, and tossed it into his own mouth.

* * *

From her seat on the ski lift, Petunia looked at the land below. She felt slightly nauseated at the sight of Nutty eating the marshmallow from Sniffles' snout and started adjusting the flower in her hair to distract herself. Next to her, Giggles waved to Pop who was pulling Cub along on a sled. Behind them, Flaky closed her eyes and tried to ignore the height, focusing instead on Lammy's humming. "Baa baa, baa baa, baa baabaa baabaa…"

The group arrived and got off near the top of the mountain. Well, most of them did; Flaky stayed behind with her eyes closed, hoping that no one would notice and that she would be able to ride back down to the bottom.

"Flaky? Aren't you going to get off?" Lammy asked.

_No such luck._ Flaky smiled weakly and jumped down to join them. "Thanks for reminding me, Lammy."

"Don't worry, Flaky. We'll go first and show you just how safe it is. See you at the bottom!" Petunia then pushed off and sped down, leaving a small cloud of snow in her wake. The others watched as she skied along a small snow shelf and launched herself into the air. The others applauded as she slowed to a stop at the bottom, waving back up at them.

"Remember, there's nothing to be afraid of!" Giggles said before snowboarding down herself with Lammy following close behind on skis. The two went along the same snow shelf that Petunia had and as they flew into the air, Giggles threw in some tricks that Cuddles had shown her.

Flaky was applauding at their bravery, but also somewhat nervous about going down herself. She was about to follow them down when she noticed an odd shifting in the snow shelf. "Huh?"

The red porcupine was first confused as she watched small pieces of snow start to break off, then horrified as she realized what was going on. "Giggles! Lammy! Petunia!" She tried calling to them without making too much noise, but soon the whole shelf broke apart and a large mass of snow began to descend down the mountain face. Throwing caution to the wind, she screamed her friends' names.

The duo on the mountainside looked up and screamed as well as they noticed the avalanche heading towards them. They frantically hurried past Pop and Cub who were building a snowman nearby.

Pop heard the girls screaming and felt the ground shaking, and when he saw the wave of snow heading towards him and Cub, he put Cub on the sled and pushed him down the mountainside. "Wheeee!" Cub squealed in delight as he sped down. Pop braced himself for impact, only to have the snow strike a large rock and part around him.

Flaky and Pop could only watch in horror as the avalanche swept over several Tree Friends and covered most of the ground below.

**Author's Note: And thus begins the next arc! First, a thanks to all of my readers who have been following the story so far. You all rock! **

**JaMaL HaDeS: I'm sorry about the confusion. The first time at the restaurant, Splendid heard Giggles' scream of distress and showed up to try and save the day (with his usual disastrous results). The second time on the roof was just him passing through, oblivious of Flippy and Flaky nearby. Hopefully this clears things up.**

**XFantasy-chanX: Splendid will appear more in this arc. Let's see what happens to him. :3**

**DarkLura: Glad to hear you're enjoying the story! Thanks for following!**

**Now, notes on the story. For the record, Nutty and Sniffles are NOT a couple, nor will they be in this fic. They're just good friends, so sorry if anyone is disappointed. Also, I haven't been feeling too well lately, so the next chapter might be delayed somewhat. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can still read and review this chapter though!**


	8. Avalanche

Sniffles and Nutty were running as fast as they could to get away from the roaring wave of snow descending upon them. The blue anteater looked back and tried to figure out the best way to get away. No matter how many times he tried to run the rough calculations through his head though, he kept coming up the same answer. There was no escape. "Nutty!"

"Ahahaha, huh?"

"When the avalanche hits, try to swim. If you start to sink, make a breathing space." He heard screams that grew gradually louder and turned to see Giggles and Lammy trying to stay atop the avalanche that was about to overtake them. "Brace yourself! Don't sink!" Then the snow hit.

Sniffles paddled for his life as the snow quickly swept him forward. Next to him, Nutty was flailing wildly and doing a pretty poor job of staying on top. Sniffles would have shouted at him, except that he needed to save his breath so save himself. Lammy's staggered when her skis hit a rock and fell over, her white coat quickly lost in the snow. Sniffles saw Lifty and Shifty desperately clinging to a tree and barely managed to get out of the way when the tree came crashing down. Despite his frantic attempts, he could feel himself sinking and tried to keep his snout up above the snow, hoping that nothing would come by and shear it off. The snow first covered his ears, blocking out the rumbling and the screaming. Then it covered his eyes, and all was dark.

For a while, Sniffles could only tell that anything was still going on because the snow around him shook. It was almost worse when it stopped. Sniffles could still breathe, luckily, but the rest of his body was pinned down by the weight of the snow, and the only thing he could feel was the cold slowly seeping into his body. He lay there, unsure if minutes or hours were passing by. Eventually, he heard a light tapping above him and felt something start to yank on his snout. He twitched his snout, trying to keep his would-be-savior from ripping it off, and heard a faint gasp.

Two sets of paws, one pink and one blue, quickly burrowed and freed him from the snowy prison that would have been his tomb. He blinked rapidly to try to adjust his eyes to the sudden brightness and found himself staring at the concerned faces of Giggles and Petunia.

"Are you okay?" Petunia asked, brushing the snow off of the anteater and straightening his hat and jacket. "Was there anyone else with you?"

"There was Nutty." He looked around for the crazy green squirrel, but all he saw was a wall of snow surrounding him with trees jutting out and a small cave in the mountainside behind him. "Nutty?" he called out quietly for fear of starting another avalanche. Squinting, he saw a snow covered green arm sticking out near one of the trees. "Nutty!" While the two girls continued their search for survivors, Sniffles hurried over to the buried individual. As he got closer, he could see that the fur on the arm was too dark to be Nutty's. Nevertheless, he diligently dug until he had freed one of the raccoon twins. "Which one are you?"

The dark green raccoon dug around until he had found his fedora. "I'm Shifty. Where's Lifty?" Without waiting for an answer, he started digging around the tree until he had exposed two bags brimming with items stolen from the lodge and the upper half of his twin brother's body. "Lift?'

"Sh-Shift?" The other raccoon grimaced and looked back at the tree. "I think my legs are crushed," he whispered in pain.

The ground shook nearby and everyone froze, afraid that another avalanche was starting. Then they heard a familiar screaming and laughing sound, and everyone sighed with relief. Giggles hurried over with Sniffles to where the sound seemed to be coming from. "Nutty?" they asked.

The sound grew louder as though to confirm their suspicions.

"Listen, you've got to stop screaming. It'll only waste your air supply and probably make things worse once we dig you out." Sniffles said reasoning with the squirrel.

There was an eerie silence and the two dug quickly, freeing a shivering Nutty whose fur was devoid of candy. "Nutty?" The squirrel remained unresponsive, but the two had to turn their attention back to Lifty and the tree.

Sniffles paced around, examining it, and shook his head. "There's no way we're strong enough to lift that off of him, even if it wouldn't disturb the snow."

"You can't leave me here!" Lifty panicked.

"Well…." Sniffles looked somewhat uncomfortable about the next option. "We could always rip off your legs." Upon seeing the raccoon's eyes widen in horror and his brother's narrow in anger, he quickly backtracked. "Or we could give lifting the tree a try!"

The group, now joined by a shivering Lammy and Cub, tried to shift the tree, but it moved very slightly and the snow began to rumble again ominously. "It's no use. Someone will have to try pulling him while the rest of us move the tree." Sniffles glanced at the snow above them. "We'll probably have to move into that cave after this, because the snow isn't going to hold. Here," Sniffles passed a branch to Lifty, "bite this."

Shifty pulled while everyone else tried lifting the tree again. Everyone could hear Lifty's muffled screams, but slowly and surely, Shifty pulled him out from under the tree. As the snow began to shift and tumble again, everyone rushed into the cave, Shifty carrying Lifty and Petunia carrying Cub.

They all barely made it inside before the snow slammed into the cave entrance and sealed it off, blocking out the sunlight. All was silent, save for Cub's whimpering and shivering. "What now?" someone asked.

* * *

Elsewhere on the mountain, a small group of rescuers had assembled near an area where Toothy's body had been found. The poor beaver had choked on snow and then been impaled by a tree branch. Handy was searching from above in his helicopter, desperately trying to find Petunia. On the ground, Cuddles sat near the back of an ambulance driven by the Mole, shivering in a rescue blanket. Flaky, currently in hysterics, was on the phone with Flippy who was trying to reassure her and told her that he would be arriving shortly. Pop was angrily advancing on a quickly retreating Lumpy, snarling at him to do his job right this time. Despite his many faults, he would go to any lengths to save Cub.

There was a blue flash in the sky. "Oh no, not this fool," Pop snapped as the hero hummed his theme shortly before sending the helicopter spinning off to the side and waves of snow into the air. The blue flying squirrel stood posed heroically in the center of a small snow crater. "Never fear, citizens, Splendid the super squirrel is here to save the day!"

The anger and frustration radiating from Pop was enough to melt the snow off of him. Much to the relief of Lumpy, he marched furiously towards Splendid. "Listen here, you wanna be hero," Pop said, poking Splendid in the chest for emphasis. "We don't _need_ your 'help.' In fact, we don't _want_ your 'help.' There's no reason for you to 'save the day' here. We. Are. Doing. _Fine._"

"W-what?" Splendid was flabbergasted. He had been expecting them to thank him for his help, or at the very least, welcome him. What he hadn't been expecting was an angry bear getting in his face. "Are you implying that I should leave?"

"No. I'm _telling_ you that you should leave!"

"You're kidding, right?" He quickly glanced around, eying the ambulance, fallen trees, and mounds of snow as he tried to assess the situation. "I mean, you're looking for avalanche survivors, right?" Seeing as how the bear was still standing there fuming instead of shouting, he assumed he was right. "Well, you've got a pretty tight schedule. I have super hearing and super speed so that you can find the survivors, and I've got lase vision so that you can dig them out." To demonstrate, he used his lasers to melt away a large part of the snow up the mountain.

"You idiot!" Pop shouted, bopping him on the head. "This is why we don't want you!" He pointed at the second avalanche now coming for the rescuers. "You make everything _worse_!" Bracing himself once more, he prepared to buried, only to hear a reversed version of Splendid's theme and feel a chill wind. He cracked open an eye and saw a flying squirrel using ice breath to freeze the avalanche back in place. _I guess he's not so useless after all._ Then he noticed Splendid still standing next to him, now shaking with anger.

As the other flying squirrel flew near, people could see there was a huge difference. For one thing, his fur was red and his mask was blue, a reversal of Splendid's colors. For another, he was moving more cautiously than Splendid would, as though to avoid stirring up the snow. "Splendont here," the red flying squirrel said as he landed. "What seems to be the problem?"

Despite how competent the hero seemed so far, Pop was still not convinced. Plus, his son was missing, he was tired, and his patience was already seriously strained by the presence of Splendid. "Look, Splendoe, or whatever your name is," Pop said in a slightly calmer voice. "I just finished explaining to your friend here that we are _fine._ We don't need Splendid, Splendid look-a-likes, or any kind of flying super squirrel hero whatevers, so you can both just go right back where you came from."

"Oh, I'm not his friend. In fact, I think he's a pretty awful hero too," Splendont said offhandedly, ignoring the hero's offended gasp. "I do still insist on helping though."

Pop struggled to decide what to say, then sighed resignedly. "Whatever. You get one shot. _Just one._ Kill anyone, and I'll have your tail." With that, he went back to conducting the rescue effort in a more calm, if not weary, manner.

Splendont turned toward his blue counterpart and smirked, a barely detectable glint of animosity in his eyes. "Run back home, little Splendid. They don't need you here," Splendont mocked so softly that only Splendid's super hearing enabled him to hear. "Go back to baking those little lumps of dough you call bread or whatever it is you do now."

That did it. He could insult his pride, he could insult his ability as a hero, but _nobody_ could insult his bread. Fuming, he shot straight at Splendont and slammed the red flying squirrel into the mountainside. He furiously punched and kicked at every inch of red fur he saw, not caring that he couldn't inflict any serious injuries.

"Hey, stop! I SAID STOP!" Pop roared at the two. He ducked and narrowly avoided being sliced by lasers that sheared the ambulance in half. The other Tree Friends quickly led him to safety behind a nearby ridge and they all watched from behind as the two heroes futilely tried to destroy each other with little regard for anything around them.

Flippy arrived in his jeep and, upon seeing the two warring squirrels, quickly ducked for cover behind the same ridge as the other Tree Friends. "So," he asked casually, "what did I miss?"

**Author's Note: Dun dun dun! What shall happen to our survivors now?**

**JaMaL HaDeS: An avalanche was what I put in the original plan, and while I probably could have thought of a different way to start it, I think I made it work.**

**Feeling better now, and I have a (tentative) plan of updating at least once every 5 days. I... don't really have much else to say I guess, so read and review!**


	9. From Bad to Worse

There was a shuffling sound, then a click as Shifty turned on a flashlight from one of the bags. Some more rummaging revealed two more working flashlights and the rest of the Tree Friends began to look around. The cave was made of bluish-gray stone with sharp stalactites hanging from the ceiling and large stalagmites jutting out from the ground. There were several frozen pools of dark water that reflected the light off of their smooth surfaces. Further down was a tunnel that down into darkness. The only visible entrance was blocked by several tons of snow.

Sniffles continued looking through the raccoons' bags of stolen goods for anything useful. He found several jackets, hats, and scarves, a large mound of cash, a few lengths of rope, some energy bars, and a very shiny pocketwatch that looked like it was made of gold, but was probably fake. He passed the extra clothes around before handing the rest back to a grumbling Shifty. "We need to find a way out. Any ideas?"

Lammy sat huddled and shivering while the others debated the pros and cons of waiting for help, trying to dig their way out, or exploring the tunnels. Despite the extra clothes she had on, her wet wool left her extremely uncomfortable, and the chill breeze she could feel wasn't helping much either. _Wait, there's a breeze?_ She stood up and turned to the others. "I t-think the t-tunnels would b-be our b-best way o-out," she said through chattering teeth. "T-there's a b-b-breeze coming from s-somewhere a-ahead. It p-probably leads out, r-right?"

The others thought over the idea. The odds of anyone being able to find them and dig through the snow were slim at best, and hypothermia was a slow and awful way to die. In the end, they agreed that there was probably nothing to lose by searching through the tunnels, but everyone would have to stick together. Everyone pointedly looked at Shifty when they said that.

"Why are you all looking at me?" he asked indignantly as he picked up Lifty.

Sniffles took a flashlight and passed the remaining one to Petunia. For the first time in a long while, he wasn't thinking of the idol at all. He was only thinking of the best way to get them all out of this situation alive. He helped up Nutty who still hadn't spoken since they had found him. As they began to carefully make their way deeper into the cave, he noticed something very familiar about the way Nutty was staring and shaking in silence. "Does anyone have any candy?" To his great concern, nobody did.

* * *

Pop did his best to get the army bear up to speed.

"So let me get this straight," Flippy said. "We've got three Tree Friends confirmed dead, another large group who might still be alive but will probably die soon, and two 'heroes' who are probably going to end up killing us all anyways?"

"Pretty much," Pop replied solemnly. "Since you're a veteran from the W.A.R., I was hoping that you might have a plan."

Flippy peered over the ridge and saw several smoldering trees, large furrows carved into the snow, the wreckage of the helicopter and ambulance, and a blur of red and blue shooting around amidst the destruction. On the other side of the fighting was the lodge, half-buried in snow. Based on what Pop had said though, the super squirrels' invulnerability rendered any sort of blunt or sharp force weapon useless. However… "You said that one of their powers is super hearing, right?"

"Yeah, it's how Splendid always manages to find a bad situation and make it worse. He can hear people screaming from a mile away." Pop ducked to avoid being skewered by a branch from a tree sailing overhead. "What are you getting at?"

"The lodge was designed and decorated by Disco Bear. That means that somewhere inside would be a huge surround sound system for him to play disco music on. You know how painful feedback can be, right?"

Pop grimaced and nodded, remembering that disastrous stop by Russell's fast food restaurant where the feedback from the intercom shattered his car's windshield and killed him and Cub.

"Well, imagine how much worse it would be for someone with super hearing. At best, it would force the two of them to stop fighting. At worst, well… even if it killed them and caused another avalanche, I'm sure you won't be much worse off than you are now."

He had to admit, the plan sounded plausible, and they didn't have time to wait for one of the heroes to defeat the other. Already, the sun was setting, and every moment that they wasted was another moment that his son would have to suffer. Pop was determined to save his son, and he was _not_ going to let two egotistical squirrels with superpowers get in his way. He spotted Lumpy trying to sneak away and yanked him back by the antlers. "You're not getting away this time. You are going to _help_, even if it kills you!"

Flippy looked with concern at Flaky, huddled and rocking back and forth, and Cuddles, shivering more violently despite the blanket. "I don't think it would be good to have these two stay for much longer." He heard his jeep start and turned to see that Pop was already driving off with an unwilling Lumpy buckled in. "Oh, that's no problem," Flippy muttered as he helped Flaky and Cuddles up, "we didn't need that jeep anyways. We'll just walk back to town through all the freezing snow." The trio began to trudge through the soft white landscape, skirting around a tossed tree. The army bear sincerely hoped that he remembered his arctic survival skills from his W.A.R. days well enough.

* * *

Pop floored the jeep, swerving and narrowly dodging bits of debris and sending up waves of snow behind him while Lumpy screamed like a little girl. Despite the numerous times that they nearly died, Pop's determination kept them moving onwards. If everything went smoothly, they would arrive at the lodge in a few short minutes. Things, of course, took a downward turn.

The duo in the jeep had just cleared a laser made rift when the fighting began to speed in their direction. Try as he might, Pop could not avoid the approaching angry mass of red and blue fur. The jeep got picked up by Splendid and tossed towards Splendont, who used a tree to hit it back. Pop and Lumpy were caught in a deadly game of badminton and smashed back and forth until Splendid finally shot the jeep out of the sky with his laser vision and sent it tumbling towards the ground.

Lumpy, now missing an antler and sporting several large cuts and bruises, managed to undo his seatbelt and leapt out into the air. Pop, who now had a broken arm, was not so lucky, and crashed into the ground, concussed but alive. He crawled out of the ruined jeep and stumbled forward a few steps. The lodge was so close; it was only a few more yards away. As his vision blurred and began to double, Pop struggled to carry on. _Just five more steps. Now just five more steps. Just another five steps…._ His body anted to collapse into the soft embrace of the snow, but he continued, five steps at a time. _Five more steps…._

He was slightly shocked when he found that he was standing right in front of a broken window into the lodge. Barely noticing one of Lumpy's antlers stuck in the frame, he painfully hoisted himself up and inside. Try as he might, Pop couldn't bring himself to stand up. The world was spinning so fast, and all he could do was lie down and watch the ceiling spin around. He felt someone pulling him by his good arm, but nothing could get through the spinning haze that was now his mind, save one thought: _Sorry Cub…._

* * *

Sniffles panted as he climbed over the top of another ridge. On his back was Nutty, who was starting to show some of his more unsettling symptoms of candy withdrawal, evidenced by his hysterical laughter that was echoing throughout the caves. Most of the other Tree Friends had stuffed cloth into their ears or put on earmuffs to block out the disturbing sound.

"Can't you get him to shut up already?" Shifty snapped. They were all tired, freezing, and hungry, and Nutty's insane laughing wasn't making the situation any better. At this point, Shifty was ready to strangle to squirrel if it meant silencing him, and several other Tree Friends seemed to be in agreement. Sniffles had already had to stop Lammy from pushing him into a chasm, though she claimed she was trying to stop Mr. Pickles, who didn't see anything funny at all about their situation, from pushing him in.

The blue anteater was growing increasingly concerned about the others killing each other as their tempers shortened. Lifty was alternating between moaning and muttering nonsense and Petunia had begun sweeping the ground as they walked, signs that Nutty wasn't the only one losing his mind. He spotted Lammy stumble slightly and noticed frost starting to form on her wool, which was still wet. "How about we take a quick break?"

Nobody disagreed and they found a fairly even patch of ground. Giggles set to work on lighting a fire using one of the leftover sweaters; Shifty wouldn't let go of any of the money, even if it meant freezing to death. Petunia gathered rocks for the fire pit, and soon, a cheery fire banished the oppressive gloom of the cavern. Lammy and Cub gratefully huddled close to the flames. The cave ceiling rumbled ominously again and the group glanced up apprehensively at the stalactites above them.

Giggles passed around the energy bars and everyone began to devour them ravenously. Everyone, except for Nutty. Several moments passed before anyone noticed that the laughter had faded away. Everyone turned to see Nutty staring blankly at the energy bar on the ground.

"Finally," Petunia sighed.

Their relief was short lived though, for Nutty began sniffling and whimpering before breaking out into full blown weeping. "We-we're all going to _die!_" His crying was soon joined by Cub's, and now the sound of their crying echoed through the tunnels.

"That is _ENOUGH!"_ Shifty marched over angrily, pushing Sniffles out of his way, and struck Nutty between each word. "I – am – sick – of – having – to – listen – to – you – freaking – out! There – is – no – candy – so – get – over – it!" Panting, he gagged the squirrel with a scarf and tied up his hands. The raccoon glared at the anteater. "Don't even _think_ about letting him go!"

Giggles stared at him with wide eyes and quickly calmed down Cub. "Maybe we should all lie down for a while," she suggested meekly. They all complied, save for Petunia who was still polishing the stalagmites and Nutty who was still sobbing behind the gag.

Shifty was lying with his back to the others, shaking slightly. It wasn't from anger or the cold though. _What did I just do? Sure, I've hit Lifty a few times, but I've never given someone a beat down like that._ He glanced at the pocket watch from the sack: twelve-thirty. _Maybe I do need some sleep._ He closed his eyes and woke up a short while later to the feeling of cold paws on his back. Turning, he saw Lifty, shivering and still in pain. It was times like this that left Shifty feeling guilty. Despite what everyone believed about him, he really regretted leaving his twin to die all those times and especially hated to see him suffer.

_Maybe you should put him out of his misery._

He jumped and looked around at the sleeping forms of the others before shaking his head. The voice sounded so much like his own, but there was no way he would ever just kill his brother needlessly. _I really must be tired if I'm hearing voices in my head._

_He's suffering. Killing him would be merciful._

That was a pretty good point. Their chances of survival were pretty slim, and even if they did make it out, Lifty's legs would still be broken. Killing him would get him out faster, and he would be good as new the next day.

_It would be merciful._

Shifty stood up and looked around for a way to kill his brother. He didn't want to just bash his head in or toss him in the fire though; both deaths would be messy and agonizing.

_The water. He wouldn't feel a thing._

Dragging his twin's sleeping form, the raccoon stopped next to one of the frozen pools and quickly smashed a hole big enough to fit a body. He then began taking off Lifty's hat and jackets.

The other raccoon began to stir. "Shifty?" He was confused by the sight of his brother standing over him and the sudden chill.

_Push him in._

"Sh-Shift?" Lifty could tell something was wrong. His brother's eyes were unfocused as though he wasn't aware of what was going on. "W-what are you doing?"

Instead of replying, Shifty pushed him into the water.

"Aaargh! Sh-Shifty!" Lifty struggled to stay afloat, but he couldn't kick his broken legs and he could feel his brother's hands pushing him back down. "Shif-"

Shifty easily held down his brother, but the sight of Lifty fighting back and the bubbles rising to the surface left him nonplussed.

_Merciful._

The struggling soon ceased and Shifty could feel his brother's body pulled down into the black depths by his own waterlogged fur.

_It was merciful_.

Shifty almost felt doubtful, but his hazy mind was now focused on only one thing: sleep. He curled back up by the fire and was soon lost in the darkness of a deep, dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note: Well that certainly took a turn for the dark at the end, didn't it?**

**JaMaL HaDeS: I do consider Ka-Pow! to be canon, but Splendont will be the only character to appear alive. W.A.R. Journal takes place in the past, so Sneaky, Mouse Kaboom, and the Tiger General are already dead (though they may appear as flashbacks later), Buddhist Monkey and associated characters live too far from Happy Tree Town to be involved in the plot, and Happy Tree Town is considered Splendid's jurisdiction, so Splendid's SSSSSuper Squad won't intervene unless he calls them. The Mole has also retired from spying and the Rat is dead. I think that's everyone.**

**catbooklover2004: Nice to finally know your name! Earlier in the previous chapter, Flaky had called Flippy and told him what had happened, and he told her he would come and get her. Splendid is upset by Pop's words because even though he thinks being a hero is a pain, it's still a matter of pride to him, hence why he didn't let Splendont take over the job before.**

**Karte: I had kind of interpreted it as Flaky thinking she was about to die so she had better speak up now or lose her chance forever, but I think I see what you mean. I'll try to keep that in mind to avoid similar mistakes. On a side note, are you the author of "Open Behind the Mask"?**

**Read and review, and I'll see you all next chapter!**


	10. Scarps, Shadows, and Silence

The trek down the mountain was a long and lonely one. Falling rocks had blocked off large portions of the road, forcing Flippy to make improvised snow shoes from tree branches so that he and Flaky could walk around without sinking up to their waists. Cuddles had lost consciousness during the trip, so Flippy now had to carry the freezing rabbit on his back, and his chances of survival were not very good if they didn't reach civilization soon.

It was quite dark out by the time Flippy spotted the lights of Happy Tree Town. The poor bear collapsed in the snow, fatigue and hunger catching up with him. The road here wound around the mountainside to avoid several precarious drops. If they could climb down those cliffs then they could shorten their travel time considerably, but he doubted that any of the trio could manage that in their current condition. To make matters worse, Evil Flippy was trying to make a comeback.

_Listen up, you pathetic excuse of a soldier,_ the menacing voice barked. _You want to survive? Then you've got to keep up your strength. That deadweight you're toting around on your back would make a nice meal._

_Shut up! I can't just eat my friends!_

_What's more important to you, your friends or your life? Besides, their bones would make good climbing gear, and there are plenty of ways to make it look like and accident if that's what you're concerned about._

"Flippy? C-c'mon, g-get up." Flaky lifted Cuddles off of his back and staggered under his weight before dropping him in the snow. She gave him a concerned look before turning to help her bear to his feet, worry gnawing at her heart. He'd given her every scrap of food he'd managed to scavenge, claiming that he was tough enough to go several days without eating. As she held his shivering frame close to her, she couldn't help but think that good deed was coming back to bite them. "W-we just have to k-keep going and w-we'll reach town in n-no time."

The army bear didn't respond at first, which troubled Flaky even more. "W-we need to find some way down that sheer drop. Fast." He half carried, half dragged Cuddles along and stopped at the edge.

Flaky peered over and shuddered. One false step, and they could all go splat on the ground. There was a soft thud and Flaky turned to see Cuddles lying in the snow again and Flippy preparing to climb down. "Flippy, wait!" She hurried over to where he was. "Y-you're in n-no shape to try g-getting down there. L-l-l," she struggled to finish her sentence, "L-let m-me try c-climbing d-d-down."

His eyes widened at her suggestion and he hesitated before nodding in agreement. Despite the fact that he was a better climber, he was also more tired and more likely to make a mistake. "Be careful," he whispered to her.

She gave him a wry grin. "I always am." Taking one last moment to mentally prepare herself, she began the descent.

The task was far more daunting than the little porcupine had first assumed. Ledges were few and far between, each barely wide enough for her to place her foot on. The chill wind bit deep and threatened to knock her off her precarious perch if she wasn't careful. Twice she slipped and squealed as she struggled to regain her footing, the rocks scratching her paws and pebbles tumbling down below. The third time it happened, she made the mistake of looking down. She was only about halfway down, and the dizzying drop sapped at her courage. Whimpering, she clung on to the cliff face for dear life. Up at the top, Flippy and Cuddles would probably wait for help until they froze. As for her, she could either hang on until she froze or let go and plummet to her doom. Just the thought made her press tighter against the rocks. _I'm sorry Cuddles. I'm sorry Flippy. I'm sorry I couldn't be brave enough…._

_Chnk. Chnk. Chnk._

The sound, accompanied by a light pattering of pebbles on her quills and head attracted Flaky's attention. Forcing herself to open her eyes, she turned up to see a familiar green figure making his way down towards her.

He continued down until he was about level with her and she could see that his arms and legs were shaking with exertion. On his back was Cuddles, tied down with makeshift straps. There was another _chnk_ as he used his trusty bowie knife to cut another handhold in the rocks. He took her paw in his. _Trust me,_ his eyes said.

Flaky took several deep breaths and the two continued their gradual descent, hand in hand. Despite how much the wind raged, despite how much he was shaking, the two held fast. They had almost reached the bottom when tragedy struck. The rock that Flaky jumped down onto crumbled and fell, leaving her with nothing to stand on. She held on tightly to her bear's paw and the three tumbled downward. Fortunately, it was not a long fall, and Flippy had enough time to turn so that he took the brunt of the impact. The trio crashed into a bush beside a highway.

The first to recover was Flaky. She stumbled to her feet and winced as she felt several shallow cuts her arms and face. Beside her was Cuddles who seemed no worse than before, though that was not reassuring in the least. Flippy though… Flaky stared in horror, unable to look away. His left arm and leg were twisted at an unnatural angle, a hint of bone poking out of the green fur. He was unconscious now and breathing in short, shallow gasps. Worst of all were the scratches on his right side. Flaky was sure if she checked her quills, she would find blood on them.

There was a lone payphone on the other side of the asphalt, and Flaky was relieved for a moment to see there were no cars or trucks. She picked up the phone and searched her pockets, but to her dismay, she had no coins. After a frantic and fruitless search of the surrounding area, she was ready to start screaming in frustration. She spotted a sign that said "Happy Tree Town, 2 miles". _This is going to be long walk,_ she thought as she tried to drag her friends toward town.

* * *

Pop had no idea how much time had passed. All he knew was that the ceiling was finally settling down and he could think somewhat clearly. There was a flickering light at the edge of his vision, accompanied by a crackling noise and the smell of burning wood. It took several moments for him to realize that something was burning. He quickly bolted upright and immediately regretted it, clutching his head in pain.

Eventually the searing pain faded to a mild throbbing and Pop was able to look around. Glass littered the floor around the broken window that he had come through, cold air creeping in through the hole. Lumpy was snoring in the other side of the room in front of a large fire place where had had apparently managed to start a fire without burning the place to the ground. Pop decided it would be best to leave him be and went to search the other rooms.

Most of the rooms were dark and eerie, furniture scattered by the avalanche and the fighting outside, and a few were filled with snow. It was slow going searching each room, but Pop knew he found the right one when he felt something crunch painfully under his paw. He hopped about, hissing in pain at the glass disco ball shards embedded in his paw. Wincing, he sat down and pulled out each piece. Walking more carefully around the dim room, he approached the huge speakers that dominated one side of the room. "Mm-hmm!" Thankful that they appeared to be in good working condition, he turned the dials up to eleven, threw the microphone at the speakers, and ducked for cover. Nothing happened.

Pop crawled out of his hiding place and tried to turn on a light switch that he found. Again, nothing happened. He facepawed himself as he realized that the electricity had probably been knocked out during the avalanche. Hoping there was a generator outside and that it hadn't been buried in snow, he reluctantly made his way outside.

The surrounding landscape looked like an arctic disaster zone. Splintered trees were scattered like spilt toothpicks, some of which were burning. As Pop made his way around the lodge, he spotted huge furrows that probably carved into the mountain itself. There were several squirrel shaped holes in the ground, but no sign of either "hero". It concerned Pop that his mission might have been in vain, but the wind carried the sounds of fighting towards him. A sudden and intense gust forced Pop to seek shelter and hold onto his hat. _That has to be some super squirrel's super breath._ Shivering, he forced himself to keep searching.

The amount of snow covering the backup generator almost caused him to walk right past it. It was only a single wire that tripped him and left him sprawled on the ground that drew his attention to the machine. Hastily, he began to clear off the snow, afraid that he might miss his chance and that the two squirrels would fly off or his son would die. He knew that he had almost no chance of finding Cub on his own; he would need help, if only he could get them to listen for a moment. It was a long and arduous task, complicated further by his broken arm. Each sweep to clear off the snow only revealed even more snow beneath it. Pop's arms were numb by the time he managed to clear off the generator's vents, and some of his skin stuck to the frigid metal. The device, however, remained as cold and lifeless as the surrounding landscape.

"No." Pop stared at the generator in disbelief. "No." He kicked at it as hard as he could. "No no no no no no _no!_" He roared in sheer frustration and began to punch and kick at the machine. "Work, you useless hunk of metal! WORK!"

Inside the building, Lumpy woke to the sound of banging metal. Blearily, he stretched out an arm to shut off his alarm clock. When he realized that it wasn't anywhere nearby, he stood up in a huff and began looking in earnest. The wooden surroundings of the lodge confused him for a moment, but he shrugged it off as an interior decorating choice he had forgotten. Rubbing at his head, he discovered that his antlers were missing, and grabbed two evenly sized branches from the edge of the fire to use as replacements. Satisfied that his antlers were keeping him toasty warm, he began looking around the lodge to see where his alarm clock had run off to.

By chance, he soon found himself in the room where the giant speakers were. The broken glass on the ground glittered in the light of his burning "antlers" and made it easy for the moose to skirt his way around them. Figuring that his alarm clock had had a growth spurt, he stood up as close as he could to the device and began scolding the speakers for making such a racket.

Despite a several minute long tongue lashing, the noise did not relent. If anything, it got louder, now mixed with the wild roaring of an angry bear. Lumpy was now really confused and wondered if his alarm clock was sick. Turning about, he spotted a microphone at the edge of his circle of light and held it up to the speakers to try and hear any wheezing.

Outside, the generator finally sputtered to life, eliciting an elated whoop from the bear outside. Electricity flowed to every appliance in the lodge. Light bulbs flickered on, the refrigerator began humming, and a soft squealing could be heard coming from the speakers.

Lumpy leaned in closer to better hear what was happening when an incredible screech erupted from the speakers, sending him flying backwards. The burst of sound was powerful enough to strip the flesh off of his bones and then shatter the bones, along with every glass object within a mile of the lodge. The opposite wall exploded outward, and the wailing of feedback intensified outside, no longer dampened by any barriers. Unable to withstand producing such an unearthly din for a long period of time, the speakers soon exploded, leaving behind a very expensive pile of scrap metal and plastic.

Any howls of pain had been drowned out by the shrieking, including those of two figures that had been locked in combat above. One red, one blue, they plummeted together down to the harsh, unyielding ground.

* * *

Shifty began to toss and turn in his sleep, muttering and reaching out towards something unseen. With a gasp of terror, he lurched awake in a cold sweat. Images of water shining darkly and the sounds of splashing swirled in his mind. His breaths were deep and shaky, the sensation of drowning still fresh in his mind. "Just a dream. Just a silly little dream." He chuckled weakly and turned to tell his brother about the ridiculous nightmare he just had, hoping they could just laugh it off together. The words died in his throat, leaving his mouth dry as he realized his brother wasn't next to him

"Lifty? Lifty!?" _Just a dream. It was all just a dream._ The mantra felt hollow though, especially in the dim light of the dying fire. All that remained of the cheerful flames from last night were a few glowing embers that looked as though they would be extinguished at any moment. In the gloom, all he could see were the dark silhouettes of his companions, yet he didn't even have to look twice to tell that none of them was his brother.

It took a few moments for him to realize that the sound of splashing water wasn't just in his panicked mind. _Someone's in the water._ "Lifty!?" _Just a dream just a dream just a dream…._ Fueled by terror, he didn't even bother to grab a flashlight before running towards the pool from his memory. Every little stalagmite was an obstacle standing in his path, tripping and bruising the normally surefooted raccoon. Nearby, shrouded by the gloom, was a figure leaning over the pool of water, holding something, or someone in it. _Lifty!_ "Noooooo!" The figure turned just as Shifty pounced, sending both them and the figure's captive sailing through the air.

A sudden light came from the campsite along with panicked scrambling as the other survivors searched for the source of the commotion. Shifty had to shield his eyes as someone shined the flashlight in his face. He looked down to see that his squirming captive was…

"Petunia?" Giggles turned to Shifty. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Erm, trying to save Lifty?" He tried to ignore Giggles' withering glare of disbelief. He had been sure. He had been _so sure_.

There was a gasp as Sniffles and Lammy found the third figure. "I wouldn't dismiss Shifty so quickly if I were you," Sniffles said grimly while Lammy fought back a sob. He held his discovery gingerly in his arms.

Giggles gasped in horror. "Petunia, _what did you do?_"

In Sniffles arms was the body of poor Cub, frozen under a thin layer of ice. Water was still dripping off the child's body, his face peaceful as though sleeping, save for his half-lidded, staring eyes. Just barely noticeable under the ice were several friction burns as though someone had tried to scour his skin.

Tears flowed freely as everyone mourned Cub's death. Petunia, despite being the killer, sobbed the hardest. "H-he was j-just looking so g-grimy and d-d-_dirty_ from all that cave trekking that I-I just tried to clean him up. I-I was just giving him a b-bath." She gasped as she realized she was lying in dirt and kicked Shifty off with incredible force. There was a loud splash as she dived into the pool and surfaced, teeth chattering. "M-must be c-clean. M-m-must be c-c-c-_clean._"

"Petunia! _Stop!_" Giggles was forced to pull out her friend kicking and screaming and required Lammy and Sniffles' help to restrain her. "Shifty…." She hesitated and then looked back at her clearly unhinged friend. "Please… tie her up. But make sure you use clean clothes," she added when Petunia began to fight harder. "And Shifty…" He turned to see her eyes full of sympathy. "I'm so sorry about Lifty."

He grunted and turned away to hide the tears brimming in his eyes. "So am I," he mumbled. _It wasn't just a dream. What was I thinking?_ The fire had completely died out by the time he trudged back to their campsite. A soft sobbing sound told him that Nutty was awake too, so he brought him over along with an extra scarf. _Lifty's scarf,_ he noticed dully.

It was then that a ghastly shrieking like that of a thousand tormented souls reverberated throughout the cave. The rocks themselves quavered at the sound. Using the distraction, Petunia broke free of her friends' grasps and ran back towards the pool.

"No, come back!" Giggles tried to chase after her friend, but Sniffles held her back just as a stalactite crashed down in front of them. Bits of rock fell from the ceiling shortly followed by more of the rocky spikes like a rain of death. It was like the avalanche all over again, only far more deadly. Everyone screamed and tried to run in the direction of what they hoped was the exit.

The cave-in stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Clouds of dust made it difficult to tell the full extent of what had happened, but five Tree Friends found their way to each other.

"Is everyone okay?" Sniffles coughed and ran his hand along the floor, searching for his glasses. A weak sobbing told him that Nutty was still alive.

"We're fine." Two figures stood up and made their way through the dust. Sniffles found his glasses, albeit with one lens cracked, and turned to see Lammy and Giggles.

There was a click and a beam of light swept around as Shifty approached, sporting a nasty looking gash on his forehead. "It looks worse than it is."

The group searched the cave and called out Petunia's name, but there was no sign of her. Some were concerned that she might have died, others afraid that she was hiding in the shadows and would drag them back to the water. It wasn't until the dust cleared that they spotted a blue furred arm sticking out from under a blood spattered rock.

Nutty walked up behind them, having somehow gotten free of his bindings. His crying had stopped for the most part, though he still sniffed occasionally. "We're all going to die…" he said forlornly.

* * *

The world was silence and pain. As he tried to free himself from under the large section of wall crushing him, he wondered how his plan had gone so wrong. He lay down, resigned and ready to die as a failure again, when he spotted a splotch of red in the snow near him too bright and solid to be blood. Desperately, he poked at the figure until Splendont stirred.

The flying squirrel felt like several white hot knives had been skewered through his skull. Blood trickled down the sides of his head from his ears, just dark enough to be noticeable against his fur. He tried to focus his blurry vision on the bear in front of him who was trying to say something. However, his hearing was completely gone, and all he could do was shrug.

Pop's vision was starting to fade into darkness. Using the last of his strength, he wrote three short words and pointed to the hero.

Shock and shame washed through Splendont as he read the words and remembered the main reason he had come here. He nodded to the bear and watched as he died with a relieved smile on his face. _I won't let you down,_ he promised silently. His first attempt to stand made him very dizzy and when he tried to fly, he ended up crashing back down into the snow. He realized that he wasn't as invulnerable as he had thought. His flying and super hearing had been disabled, and using super strength and laser vision were just as likely to kill as save the survivors if he didn't find them first. Now without his powers, he had to search through the snow like an ordinary person. How was he supposed to complete the bear's dying wish now? _Save my son._

**Author's Note: Happy first day of August everyone! It's hard to believe that I've been working on this fic for over a month now, but there's still plenty more to come.**

**JaMaL HaDeS: Voila, Chapter 10 has appeared! Lifty always seems to get the short end of the stick. Will he forgive his brother this time?**

**catbooklover2004: From personal experience and some articles on the internet, drowning is more emotionally/mentally painful than it is physically. It's supposedly a pretty peaceful way to go once the person stops struggling. Shifty doesn't know any of this though and just made a bad decision from stress and lack of sleep. Or did he?**

**Is it just me, or have these recent chapters gotten a little more... somber? Well, let me know what you think by reading and reviewing!**


	11. Survivors

_Candycandycandycandycandy…_ There was only one thought on Nutty's mind. He wanted it. He _needed_ it. But he couldn't have it. It was worrying at first. What would he do without candy? Then it was funny, like the universe was playing some joke on him, because it was just not possible that he would have to go hours without something sweet to eat. He laughed, almost desperately, and waited for the punchline to come. With each hour that passed though, the joke became meaner and less funny. At some point the tragedy of the situation finally set in, and he cried at the cruelty of fate. Now came the final part: the slow crumbling of whatever sanity he still had left.

Giggles eyed the green squirrel who was now giving the thousand mile stare. Concerned, she turned to talk to Lammy, only to see that she was talking to the pickle that she always carried around. Shifty hadn't spoken since Petunia had died, and she realized that she kind of missed the raccoon's usual snarky comments. "When did I become the only sane one?" she muttered to herself when she heard Sniffles begin a one-sided conversation with Nutty,

Eventually Sniffles' chatter died down and their grim procession continued in silence. Every twisted turn through the frigid caverns dampened their spirits and their hope faded like the light from their remaining flashlight. Soon enough, it went out altogether, leaving the Tree Friends in near total darkness.

"Nutty was right, wasn't he, Mr. Pickles?" Lammy felt around and found a rock to sit down on. "I almost thought we would actually make it."

There was a thud and Giggles tripped over Shifty who had lain down in defeat. He didn't care anymore about what happened; all he wanted was to get back to town and apologize to his twin, even if he had to die in the process.

"You can't give up now! We're close to the end, I just know it!" However, she knew just from the slumped postures of the three silhouettes that her friends had given up. _Wait, three?_ She counted again just to make sure. There was Shifty on the ground with his signature fedora, a fluffy looking shape on a rock that looked like Lammy, and a long-nosed figure that had to be Sniffles. _Where did Nutty go?_

She dashed ahead, hoping that the candy-craving squirrel hadn't managed to get himself killed. Curiously, as she went farther through the tunnel, the rocky walls became easier to see. Icicles glimmered dimly on the ceiling as she passed by. Eventually she saw Nutty curled up and trembling on a cavern floor. "Nutty! You had us all worried!" None of the others seemed to have noticed he was gone, but she didn't feel the need to tell him that. As she approached him, a weak beam of light touched her eye. "Huh?" Looking up, she followed the ray as it reflected along the ice back to the hole near the ceiling where it was coming from.

"Giggles! Why did you run off like that?" Lammy panted as she finally caught up. Her eyes widened when she saw where the chipmunk was pointing. "A way out…" she whispered in awe. There was a gasp behind her when Sniffles and Shifty caught up. "I know, it's so beautiful, right?"

It wasn't the route to freedom that Sniffles was gasping about though. Near their exit, partially embedded in an icicle, was _an idol_. "We have to get out of here. _Now!_"

* * *

Splendont looked tiredly at the sunrise. He had been scouring the mountain for what felt like hours, yet still had seen neither hide nor hair of any of the missing Tree Friends. _I'm an even worse hero than _Splendid_ if I can't even find the people I'm supposed to save._ He was exhausted, dizzy, and still deaf from the noise attack earlier. Downtrodden as he was though, he continued his unrelenting march.

The mountain shook ominously behind him, making him pause. He tried to shrug it off and keep walking, but it shook again. Turning with dread, he saw a familiar blue shape trying, and failing, to fly around the mountain. _Great, he's awake._ He quickened his pace. Time was running out.

There was a hole in the surface in the distance. It looked like it had been naturally formed, something that could potentially lead into the mountain itself. Peering in, he gasped. Down below were five figures sprawled on the ground: a purple lamb, a blue anteater, a green raccoon, a pink chipmunk, and a green squirrel. He didn't see any signs of a small bear cub though. _They still need help. I've got to think fast,_ he thought upon noticing Nutty's expression, which could either be described as pure agony or pure insanity. The mountain shook again. _Think really fast._

* * *

"Well that didn't work," Sniffles groaned, rubbing his sore head. They had tried to stand on each other's shoulders to form a ladder and reach the hole. Unfortunately, Nutty had finally snapped and began screaming, startling everyone and causing them to sway and fall down. Shifty had smacked his head against several large icicles, sending them plummeting down, and was now bleeding profusely from a head wound. The ground shook intermittently, and Sniffles feared that their escape would be foiled by the idol in the most painful way possible.

Nutty didn't care about escape anymore. He didn't care about anything anymore besides candy, and since there was none, all he could do was scream. His gaze was drawn to the idol, which now looked like a wrapped chocolate to him, and he snatched it up and began to gnaw on it. It refused to yield between his teeth, making him snarl and toss it away in a rage. There was a thud and a red figure fell in through the hole.

Stars spun around Splendont's head as he tried to figure out what just happened. Dazed, he looked up to see the pink chipmunk looking at him with concern and saying something. He sort of gestured at his ears, but she understood the message, and wrote "Are you okay?" in the snow on the ground. He nodded and pointed questioningly at Nutty who was now shoving snow in his mouth, but she shrugged in response.

Communication became a game of charades. Sniffles gestured at the hole and flapped his arms like a chicken. Splendont didn't quite get it until the anteater made a heroic up-up-and-away pose, but he had to dash their hopes by demonstrating that he couldn't fly with crashing. Giggles mimed climbing up the wall and the flying squirrel shrugged and nodded, as if to say "why not?" Digging his paws into the rocky walls, he slowly climbed upward while Sniffles clung onto his back and the idol, hoping they weren't already doomed. The others waited calmly and patiently, thankful that a savior had arrived.

Splendont deposited Sniffles on the snow nearby and tossed down one end of the rope that the group had brought along. He waited for the others to start climbing up. And waited. And waited. The rope hung limply in his arms and he wondered if something had happened. His fears were confirmed when the anteater began tugging on his arm frantically and pointing to the hole. Passing the rope to Sniffles, the hero jumped down into the hole and into pandemonium.

Nutty had completely lost it. His candy vision had been cranked up to extreme and now everything around him resembled a beautiful, sugar frosted candy land, even the other Tree Friends. He had chased around a large pink marshmallow, taken a bite out of a green candy cane, and was now tearing off chunks of cotton candy, all while giggling deliriously.

The scene was very unnerving for Splendont, especially since he couldn't hear anything. The chipmunk cowered in a corner, the raccoon lay in a pool of blood, and the lamb was screaming silently while the maniacal squirrel on her back ripped out fistfuls of her wool and stuffed them into his mouth. He ran over and yanked Nutty away, tossing him to the side and pinning his arms behind his back. He was surprised at how strong the other squirrel was and kept getting smacked in the face by his big green tail. It didn't hurt, but it was really annoying, and he had to repeatedly spit green fur out of his mouth. _This can't possibly get any worse._

The ceiling of the cavern they were in suddenly smashed inward sending rubble flying everywhere. A particularly large rock hit Splendont in the head and sent him staggering back. He looked down at the lifeless green squirrel in his arms, chest pierced by icicles, and then over at the figure standing triumphantly in the middle of the wreckage.

Splendid hummed his theme tune, a little off-key. Upon realizing that he couldn't hear it and that nobody was paying attention, he made a Handy-esque face.

_It got worse._ Splendont could only watch as Splendid grabbed Giggles and Shifty, unable to see Lammy, and took off unsteadily, smashing another hole as he did so. This time, the entire cave destabilized and began collapsing around them, threatening to bury them alive. Tossing aside Nutty's corpse, he ran over to the cowering lamb and carried her as he began jumping up the falling rocks. His lack of balance caused them to miss several times, but the two gradually made their way towards freedom.

They were almost out when Lammy gasped. "Mr. Pickles!" The little green pickle was lying abandoned amongst the rocks where Lammy had been hiding earlier. "Don't worry, I'll save you!" Squirming, she wriggled her way out of Splendont's grasp and dived down with the rocks. "I'm coming Mr. Pickles!"

"No, wait!" Splendont jumped up to the top and watched in horror as the rocks filled in the cave. Frantically, he began digging down and hurtling rocks into the distance.

"Splendont, stop!" Sniffles shouted. He grabbed the flying squirrel and tried to pull him back. He might as well have tried to stop an avalanche with his bare hands, but Splendont noticed and stopped digging. The anteater looked him straight in the eye and mouthed slowly, "I know it's tragic that you lost her, but at least you saved someone."

The thought did not cheer Splendont up much. _There were five Tree Friends in that cave. Five. How many did I save? One. Just one._ He sighed and gestured for Sniffles to climb onto his back. Once he felt that Sniffles was hanging on securely enough, he took off towards town with super speed.

* * *

Exhausted, Flaky plodded on past the first houses on the outskirts of Happy Tree Town. She stopped when she came upon a house with one wall blown out and three Tree Friends in front of it: Disco Bear with half of his afro missing, Russell without most of his pirate gear, and Mime who was carrying one of Russell's peg legs. All three had blood on them, though whose she couldn't tell, but she didn't care; she was happy to finally see another conscious person. "Help," she called out weakly. "Help."

The trio turned and gasped when they spotted her and her friends, and Mime and Disco Bear ran over. Disco Bear checked on Cuddles first. After searching for a pulse and checking to see if he was breathing, he had to turn to Flaky and give her the grim news: Cuddles was dead.

Flaky felt like crying. She had dragged Cuddles for _2 miles_ to save him, only to learn that he was dead anyways. Desperately, she hurried over to Mime, who was listening to Flippy's chest.

For a few dreaded seconds there was nothing. Mime slapped the army vet a few times, gently at first, then harder. He was ready to declare him dead when the bear started coughing up blood.

Flaky grabbed Mime and shook him. "W-we've got to g-get him to the h-hospital r-right away!"

"I'm afraid that there's no one at the hospital who can take care of him right now." Disco bear turned away so he wouldn't have to see Flaky burst into tears.

Splendid crashed down at the site. "Hm-hmhmhmmm…" he hummed weakly. Depositing a blood covered Giggles on the ground, he saluted and stumbled off in the direction of his home.

Russell, Mime, and Disco Bear were left unsure of what to do about the bawling Flaky, the critically injured Flippy, and the unconscious Giggles. Fortunately for them, Splendont arrived shortly afterwards.

Sniffles looked at the mess and the injured Tree Friends. He pointed at them and then in the direction of the hospital, looking at Splendont questioningly.

The hero sighed in response and picked up the bear and the chipmunk. _A hero's work is never done,_ he thought as the group hurried towards the hospital.

**Author's Note: Next chapter is the arc epilogue/transition. Read and review.**


	12. Calm

_A few days later…_

"Here, l-let me help you w-with that." The little red porcupine hurried over to open the diner door for the limping army vet.

"Thanks Flaky!" Flippy hobbled in on his crutches followed close behind by Flaky.

She gave him a faint smile to mask the guilt she felt. He'd hurt himself saving her. Again. Ever since that trip in the mountains, she started to feel more like a damsel in distress than his girlfriend. Just this morning he pushed her out of the way of an incoming truck, breaking his leg in the process. Thankfully he should heal completely by the next day, but it still pained her to realize that it was her fault that he kept getting injured.

"You two ready to order?" Giggles asked with a friendly smile.

The question jolted Flaky out of her thoughts and she realized that she had been seated with a menu in front of her for several minutes. "O-oh, um, I-I'll have… um… pancakes!" she blurted out. _Pancakes? For lunch?_ She mentally facepalmed.

"Well, it's never too late for pancakes," Giggles said, jotting down the order. "And you, Flippy?"

"Just a grilled cheese." The green bear was also distracted and didn't notice Giggles skating away. His evil side had been unusually quiet lately, and it left him feeling unsettled. _Just what are you up to?_

Both of them were so lost in their thoughts that neither noticed the food arrive. Their food sat there uneaten as they stared unseeingly out the window at the cars rushing by.

* * *

Outside above the traffic, a red shape flew through the air. Splendont pulled out a list of things he planned to do today and crossed off an item: apologize to Pop. It hadn't gone too badly, but it definitely could have been better. He had to pound on the door and wait for almost half an hour before Cub answered the door. Pop had hurried out and scooped the little bear up in his arms and would have closed the door if Splendont hadn't held it open.

"Pop, hold on! I know that you've probably been avoiding me for the past few days because you're angry that I couldn't save your son." He let go of the door and was pleased to see it not slamming in his face. "I just want to say that I'm really, _really_, sorry that I messed up. Could you give me a second chance to prove that I actually am a hero?"

There was a brief moment of silence that probably lasted only a minute but felt like an hour to Splendont. Finally, Pop slowly nodded. "You did manage to keep one person alive, which is more than I can say about our current 'hero'. Don't blow it again."

Splendont sighed in relief. "Thanks Pop, I'll make sure you don't regret-" The door swung shut. "Okay then."

Now he was on his way to his next task, musing about the unfairness of the situation. _Splendid messes up so many times, yet everyone still loves him. Meanwhile, I mess up _once_ and I have to go and apologize to clear my name. _Splendont's paws curled into two angry red fists. _I wouldn't even have failed if it weren't for that blue idiot getting in the way!_ He nearly ended up missing his destination and had to double back.

Silently, Splendont touched down in front of the building and double checked the address he had. "This looks like the right place." He then zoomed up the stairs and stopped in front of one of many identical looking doors. _Knockknockknock._ "Shifty, open up!"

"I told you, I'll have the rent by the end of the week!" a hoarse voice hollered.

"It's Splendont, not the landlord!" he shouted back impatiently.

The door opened just a crack. "Oh, it's you. Whaddyou want?"

"There's been a robbery. You and your brother are thieves. I think you can figure out the rest." He moved forward to open the door, but had to quickly pull his hand back as it shut.

"I don't know nothing about a robbery, so go away!"

Rolling his eyes, Splendont forced the door open, wincing as he heard the lock break. _Keep this up, and you'll be just like Splendid._ "Now why don't I believe you, Shifty?" He stepped in and paused when he saw the raccoon. "Are you feeling okay?"

Shifty looked like a mess. His green fur was unkempt and pressed flat on one side like he had just gotten out of bed. Two bloodshot eyes glared at the flying squirrel from under a crushed looking fedora. "I'm fine, and I said I don't know anything about a robbery, so why don't you just beat it?"

"Erm…" Looking around, Splendont could see that the rest of the apartment wasn't looking much better than Shifty. Takeout containers littered the table and unwashed dishes lay in the sink. He could hardly imagine why someone would want to live like this. "Where's your brother Lifty?"

Right away, Splendont could tell that he'd said something wrong. Shifty's expression wavered and pain flashed briefly in his eyes before his scowl returned. "I don't know where he is. I haven't seen him for days, ever since the trip to the mountains. Now, if you're done interrogating me and breaking my stuff, get out!"

Splendont's ears twitched as they picked up a scream for help. He quickly dashed to the window and sighed when he saw the Mole driving a hay baler through town. "Look, I'm sorry for breaking your door." _That's twice now that you're apologizing._ "I'll pay you back for it later. In the meantime, could you let me know when you see your brother again?"

The raccoon had already turned away from him. "Sure, whatever."

"Thanks." Splendont quickly heaved the window open and flew out after the Mole, humming his theme.

* * *

Shifty slowly walked over and closed the window. He waited to make sure that the town's newest hero had truly left before he let the tears start flowing. Flopping back onto the couch, he lay there and cried silently for several minutes. When he finally stopped, a small glint from his room caught his eye. It turned out to be a framed photo on the ground of him and Lifty back when they were kits. Upon seeing their smiling, carefree faces, he began to cry again. _When did things go so wrong?_

There hadn't been a particular day when Shifty just left Lifty behind. At first, the two had been inseparable, and Shifty valued nothing more than Lifty. Then it started with Shifty taking a little longer to decide between saving his twin, followed by "accidently" leaving him behind when the cops were after them. Lifty had always come back and forgiven him though, and Shifty was sure that nothing could break their brotherly bond. _Until now, that is._

When they had come home from the hospital the day after the incident in the caves, Lifty had been strangely silent. Shifty had tried to help his twin laugh it off, but to no avail. After several unsuccessful tries, he had to ask.

"What's wrong, Lifty?"

All of Lifty's suppressed rage exploded out in a vicious tirade. "What's wrong? What's wrong!? I'll tell you what's wrong! I'm sick and tired of always getting left behind while you run away with the riches! I'm sick of being the one who does most of the chores at home! I'm sick of our schemes failing mostly because you think the money is more important than me! Most of all though, I am sick and tired of YOU! YOU ARE THE WORST BROTHER IN EXISTENCE!" Lifty's rant kept going on and on about everything wrong with their relationship. The problem was a lot of it was true.

"Well I'm the one who comes up with most of the schemes and plans our escapes!" Shifty retorted angrily, cutting off his brother.

The two of them argued back and forth, and it only got worse as the day progressed. They soon went from tossing words to tossing objects at each other, still screaming the entire time.

"You know what? I've had enough." Lifty angrily marched to his room and began packing. "I'm moving out. I can't stay here with you any longer. I don't want you as a brother anymore. In fact, you are dead to me now."

"Yeah? Well I'm glad that we won't be brothers anymore! You were always the one holding us back! Don't come crawling back here when you change your mind though, because you're dead to me too!"

After a lot more shouting and door slamming, Lifty packed everything he owned into the van and driven off. Shifty initially felt pleased that he would finally have the place to himself, but by the time morning came, he realized what a horrible mistake he had made. He missed Lifty. Unfortunately, it seemed that Lifty did not miss him. No matter how hard he looked, Shifty couldn't find his brother anywhere. Nobody had seen him either; that or they didn't want to help him. Depressed, he had returned to his apartment empty handed and wallowed in self-blame.

Still crying, he shoved the picture into a drawer so he wouldn't have to look at it. _Oh Lifty, where are you?_

* * *

"Ooooooh!" The green candy-covered squirrel clapped his paws eagerly and handed over a large stack of money to the raccoon in the blue van. Excited, he ran over to the back doors that had just been unlocked and hauled out a massive amount of candy.

The driver hopped out and caught several pieces that fell of the top. "Want some help with that, Nutty?"

He nodded eagerly and the two of them carried the load into his tree house. "Thanks Lifty! You're the best!"

"No problem. It's always a pleasure doing business with you." He started to get back in the van.

"Lifty, wait." Nutty giggled nervously, wondering if what he was about to ask would cost him his recently restored candy supply. "I know you told me a few days ago that you, hahaha, didn't want me to tell anyone where I got the candy from, but, heeheehee, why do I have to hide it from Shifty?"

A sorrowful look crossed Lifty's eyes that quickly hardened. "I don't want to even hear his name again. You're a nice guy, Nutty, but all you need to know is that if Shifty ever gets word that I come here regularly, you'll never see a grain of sugar again, got it?"

Whimpering, Nutty nodded and watched Lifty drive away. He never thought about it much, but Lifty could be really scary! Grabbing an armful of candy, he hurried over to Sniffles' house.

The door opened after several knocks. "Oh, you're here early Nutty. Come on in! You've got a little something on your face." The anteater was looking much better rested than he'd been several days ago, and even seemed to be happy today.

Licking the last bit of chocolate off of his face, Nutty followed Sniffles down into the lab where two familiar figures sat in glass cases. "You have two of those idol things? Hahaha, didn't you say that they were really dangerous?"

"Ordinarily, yes, they cause many improbable and lethal disasters." Sniffles tossed something over to Nutty. "These new inventions of mine though can counteract some of their deadly powers though."

Nutty stared at the object in his paw in confusion. "It's a coin."

"A special, lucky coin. Observe." Sniffles picked up the idols and a pair of scissors and started running around amongst the dangerous equipment, scaring Nutty severely. However, he managed to run around the lab twice without incident. "See? If the idols could work at full power, I would've been dead twenty times over."

"Amazing," Nutty said weakly, clutching his chest. "Just… don't be so careless with your life. We always come back, but one day, one of your experiments might kill us for good."

Nodding, Sniffles agreed not to die so flippantly. "Now, come and look at this." He pulled Nutty over to a large computer screen displaying a map of Happy Tree Town and all of the surrounding areas. "I can use the energy signatures of the two idols I have to try and pinpoint any others that may be nearby. Soon, death shall plague us no more!" There was a beep as he pushed a button and started a scan. "It will take some time, so how about I show you some weapons I made to fight the idols, and then we can go have some candy and play checkers."

"Okay!" Nutty followed along, happy at the prospect of free candy and time with his friend. Neither of them noticed the idols shaking within the cases.

**Author's Note: Apologies for the delay; writer's block is annoying.**

**JaMaL HaDeS: Shoot... No, you didn't miss anything, it was an editing mistake I made. I had planned to do something with the other three HTF characters, but ended up cutting it out. I must have missed that section. I'll write a short side story to explain what happened once I finish with this. For now, though, I'll leave it up to the reader's imagination.**

**Read and review!**


	13. Storm

_Early the next morning…_

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Sniffles woke up and rubbed his stiff neck, wondering why there was a waffle pattern pressed into the right side of his face. Fumbling around, he managed to grab his glasses and saw that he had fallen asleep on the cold metal surface of his supercomputer. He picked up the checkerboard lying to the side, shaking his head and wondering how Nutty was able to beat him every single time. The sun had barely begun to rise outside, and Sniffles began heading back up to his room, giving the computer one last cursory glance. What he saw immediately jolted him awake and had him dashing back to the screen. _Scan complete: 8 idols located_.

Eight little red blips flashed on the map of their small world. Two of them overlapped his house, representing the idols that he had already found. To his dismay, none of them were particularly close to each other, but one was surprisingly within the town limits. The map zoomed into each site and listed the coordinates. Sniffles patiently watched and recorded each location. When the coordinates of the farthest location appeared though, he blanched and nearly dropped his pencil. Still shaking slightly, he hastily began tossing equipment into a box and picked up his phone to call the other Tree Friends.

* * *

The scent of pancakes wafted through Petunia's house, slowly rousing the three sleeping guests in the living room. Humming cheerfully, Petunia flipped a pancake out of the pan and onto a plate and was just about to start making another when the phone rang. She was about to pick it up when she remembered that the stove was still on and quickly shut it off first to avoid burning the town down again. "Hello, Petunia speaking."

"It's Sniffles. I'm calling an emergency town meeting. Get to town hall right away."

"What!? Are you sure?" Petunia could count on one paw the number of emergency meetings that she could remember. Twirling the cord nervously, she asked "Are you sure? You didn't just lose your glasses again, right?"

"I'm positive. It's about the idols."

"Oh…. Well, Giggles, Lammy, and Flaky were sleeping over, so I'll be sure to tell them. We'll be there as soon as possible." The line disconnected with a click and Petunia anxiously returned the phone to its cradle. Distracted, she tried to go back to making breakfast, but ended up burning half of the pancakes and was still cooking when the others arrived.

"Morning, Petunia," Giggles yawned. She frowned when she spotted the burnt food. "Is something the matter?"

"Sniffles called an emergency town meeting."

Flaky and Giggles gasped at the words, but Lammy stood there confused. "What's so shocking about that? With all that happens, wouldn't meetings get called regularly?"

Giggles shook her head. "It's _because_ crises happen so often that this is shocking. An emergency meeting is only called when there's something really important or really dangerous happening. The last meeting I remember is when Splendid became the official hero of the town." Lost in thought, she nibbled absentmindedly on a semi-burnt pancake.

A honk outside interrupted their conversation and Petunia opened the door to reveal Handy outside in his orange tow truck. He waved to her with his nubs and she smiled at him while she walked over.

"Handy, I'm so glad you could make it! I don't think we'll be able to head out this morning though; Sniffles called an emergency meeting." She chuckled at Handy's grump face and kissed the handless beaver on the cheek. "Don't worry, we can always reschedule. In the meantime though, can you give me and the girls a ride over?"

* * *

The sky outside quickly darkened, clouds covering the rising sun while howling winds shook the trees. Forcing his way through on his scooter was Nutty. The squirrel kept worriedly glancing up at the sky, wondering if this had something to do with the emergency meeting Sniffles had called. "The forecast called for clear and sunny," he muttered to himself. Bad weather was uncommon in Happy Tree Town; usually, it only occurred when there would be a lot of death.

The wind suddenly shifted and pushed Nutty uncontrollably down the road. He couldn't stop as he barreled down an intersection and was forced to jump off to avoid being crushed by a blue car. As luck would have it, the car swerved upon flattening the scooter and would have crashed into Nutty anyways if a taxi hadn't sideswiped it first.

Cuddles jumped out of the blue car, ears flopping in the wind, followed by Toothy. The gale was getting so loud that he had to shout to be heard. "Is everyone alright!?"

"I think I might've bruised a rib." Wincing, Sniffles stepped out of the taxi carrying a box and stumbled in the wind.

Splendont arrived on the scene looking more haggard than usual. His blue mask was slightly askew and he hadn't bothered humming his theme tune. "Is everyone okay?" He sighed in relief when they nodded. "Good. I've been flying all across town trying to help anyone caught in the storm, and Splendid certainly isn't making things easier. I would suggest you find shelter; some parts of town have been hit by winds so fierce, entire buildings have collapsed." As he spoke, rain began to come down in sheets. The ground shook and a building in the distance could be seen falling over. The hero punched a tree in frustration. "I'll try to come by to check on you later!" he shouted as he flew away, leaving a fallen tree behind.

The four Tree Friends tried to make their way to the town hall, but the storm grew fiercer, knocking down trees and threatening to send them flying. It soon became impossible to walk and they were forced to hang on to various objects to avoid being blown away. The rain continued to pour even harder and it was soon like being caught in a waterfall.

They would probably have been stuck there until the wind carried them away if it were not for the timely arrival of a blue van. The back doors slammed open, revealing a familiar looking green raccoon. He reached out a paw. "Get in! Quickly!"

Paw in paw, they formed a living chain and successfully made it into the safety of the van. While they examined their surroundings, their savior quickly hopped into the front and began driving. There was plenty of gold in the van which kept it from being blown away. Sniffles looked closely at some of the coins and recognized them from his time as a banker. "So Lifty, you're the robber that Splendont's been searching for?" When he didn't get a response, he added, "We haven't seen you in a while; where have you been?"

"Oh, here and there. You're lucky I showed up when I did." The rain made it nearly impossible to see out the windshield and the van swerved multiple times, just barely avoiding fallen trees.

"Yeah, lucky indeed," Sniffles muttered, checking his box.

There was a loud thump on the side of the van, causing Lifty to swerve again before coming to a stop. They stepped out, the wind now slightly lighter, and found Mime slumped unconscious outside. "The roads are all blocked! We've got to find somewhere to bunker down!" Lifty shouted as an orange tow truck flew overhead. Lightning flashed, illuminating an oddly shaped building nearby, and they trudged through the mud towards it.

"Whose house is this!?" Toothy shouted.

"Who cares? It's shelter!"

The group hustled inside, slamming the door shut behind them. The interior was deceptively calm, everything in its place, and the storm did not sound nearly as loud. The hall lights shone cheerfully on the shivering Tree Friends who were nonplussed by the suddenly serene atmosphere. Lifty and Sniffles searched for the kitchen while the others watched over Mime.

The purple deer came to slowly. When he opened his eyes though, he immediately freaked out and tried to run outside.

Cuddles and Toothy had to tackle him and hold him down. "Dude, what's wrong?"

Mime gestured frantically and tried to squirm free and escape. Confused though, the two friends held him down and tried to puzzle out what he had just "said".

Lifty and Sniffles came back with an armload of food. "You'll never believe this, but we found a door that opens straight to a refrigerator!" The raccoon happily chomped down on a large joint of ham.

"What's wrong, Sniffles?" Nutty asked, seeing his friend's grim expression.

"I don't think that it was a coincidence that the storm forced us to come here. We're all in terrible danger. This is the Crane House."

**Author's Note: A short, fillerish chapter to get our cast to the setting.**

**catbooklover2004: Aside from the town itself, the curse covers some of the surrounding areas including the arctic, the forest, the desert, and the mountains, all of which are very difficult to access from outside the town. Also (from personal experience), people don't always think clearly in an argument, and good points can be forgotten until later. Plus, I don't think Lifty would've believed him anyways considering their track record.**

**Karte: One of the best ways to test relationships is to put them under pressure.**

**gamergir8: Thanks, I shall!**

**For those of you who don't know, the Crane House is what I call the house from "Home is Where the Hurt Is". Read and review!**


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